Growing beyond the field: What is controlled environment agriculture?

What do hoop houses, vertical farms and DIY hydroponic systems all have in common? They are all part of controlled environment agriculture, or CEA — a rapidly growing field that lets farmers, researchers and even home gardeners produce crops year-round by shaping the growing environment. 

In this episode of Cultivating Curiosity, we sit down with Rhuanito Ferrarezi, associate professor of horticulture in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), and Ruchika Kashyap, assistant professor of plant pathology at CAES and UGA Cooperative Extension specialist.

Both are members of the college's “fab five” of CEA. Together, they unpack what CEA is and how it differs from traditional farming, why Georgia — and CAES in particular — are emerging as a hub for greenhouse innovation, and what it could mean for food security, sustainability, and local access to fresh produce in the years ahead.

Content from CAES:

• CAES alumnus joins UGA-Griffin faculty to expand food production through controlled environment agriculture
• Controlled environment agriculture poised to become a growth industry
• CAES partners with Agrify to grow vertical farming efforts
• CAES vertical farming research sheds light on producing medicinal compounds

Get social with us!
Follow CAES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and check out UGA Extension on on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

Episode Transcript

Sound Effect (00:00):
[music]

Jordan Powers (00:00):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Jordan Powers.

Emily Cabrera (00:12):
And I'm Emily Cabrera. We're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.

Sound Effect (00:18):
[chime]

Emily Cabrera (00:20):
Today we're in the studio with Rhuanito
Ferrarezi, an associateprofessor in the CAES Department
of Horticulture, and RuchikaKashyap, also known as "Dr. R"
to the growers she works with,an assistant professor in the
CAES Department of PlantPathology and an Extension
Specialist. Both are part of ateam of researchers working in
controlled environmentagriculture, who lovingly call

(00:42):
themselves the "Fab Five ofCEA." Thank you both for joining
us.

Ruchika Kashyap (00:46):
Thank you, Emily.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (00:47):
Thank you for having us.

Jordan Powers (00:48):
For those who may be unfamiliar, what exactly is
Controlled EnvironmentAgriculture, also known as CEA?

Ruchika Kashyap (00:54):
For me, Controlled Environment
Agriculture is a very broadterm. Think of it like anything
that is controlled, anythingdifferent that you're doing
from, like outside productionthat happens in field, and
you're kind of modifying it, tomodify the environmental
conditions, to grow the cropsthat is controlled- environment.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (01:16):
What we've been trying to do, is really
creating a definition of CEA.
And one of the definitions thatwe are trying to come up with is
dividing Controlled EnvironmentAgriculture in low-tech,
medium-tech and high-techfacilities. So hoop houses
being, for example, low-techfacilities, because there are
just a few aspects beingcontrolled, such as rain or

(01:39):
hail. And then we also have somesort of high-tech facilities,
such as the vertical farms,totally automated, temperature
controlled, moisture controlled,artificial lighting, everything
contained sensors, roboticsinvolved. So just to guide us
when we are defining theseproduction facilities. But

(02:02):
everything that we change theenvironment in control some
aspects can be rainfall, can betemperature, can be lighting. So
we call them ControlledEnvironment Ag.

Jordan Powers (02:13):
Okay, so a very broad term and but it's
fascinating. So people who havea greenhouse in their yard are
participating in ControlledEnvironment Agriculture?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (02:20):
Absolutely, they are.

Emily Cabrera (02:21):
Agriculture is Georgia's number one industry,
and I think most people think offield crops, or big farms, row
crops, and you just touched onthis a little bit but how does
CEA differ from traditionalfarming?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (02:34):
So I think agriculture is a mix of art,
science and passion. So the maindifference of CEA is the fact
that we have control over theenvironment, which in the open
field, we often do not have thatcapability. If you can control
temperature, lighting, if youcan control moisture and
consequently vapor pressure,that regulates how much plants

(02:57):
are transpiring and consequentlygrowing. And if, instead of
having long or short periods ofrainfall, we have the ability to
provide water at the time plantsneed it the most with the
nutrients that they need at thestage they need. So that defines
the difference between openfield and CEA, then our ability

(03:18):
to actually control the inputthat our farmers had been
manipulating over the decades,the centuries, that they've been
practicing agriculture on a waythat they can shorten crop
cycles, that they can predicthow much they are yielding. That
is the major element that CEAbrings to standard farming.

Ruchika Kashyap (03:40):
It's also the density of the crops, right? I
feel like controlledenvironments are more dense in
terms of production and yearround production, because, you
know, you're controllingeverything, but we cannot do
that in the field, and we haveto maintain the spacing. Those
are the main differences. Butthe basic concepts, as Dr.
Ferrarezi mentioned, like you'regrowing a plant, right? That is

(04:02):
the same.

Jordan Powers (04:02):
At the end of day, the consumer is going to
have that leafy green on theirplate.

Ruchika Kashyap (04:07):
Exactly!

Jordan Powers (04:08):
They're going to have the tomato on their plate.
It just may have grown in afield or grown in a vertical
farm setting. Which isfascinating, I had a chance to
come out and see the verticalfarms. Gosh, that was, I think,
a couple years ago now, and it'sjust incredible to see that
technology at work, and thatleads perfectly in what was
going to be my next question is,why is CEA becoming more
important in today'sagricultural landscape,
especially in places likeGeorgia?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (04:28):
I love that question because our state is at
the core of the expansion of theCEA industry because of the
geographical location. So foodis traditionally produced in the
West Coast and then shippedacross the country. So with
Georgia being centrally locatedto many southern states, so we
have been receiving a lot ofinvestments from companies that

(04:51):
wanted to move produce in theneighboring states that we have.
That is reducing the foodmileage that we often have with
the majority of the freshproduce.

Ruchika Kashyap (05:03):
And interest in CEA, a general curiosity in CEA
is also helping it boom. When Igo out and do my Extension
activities and I go out togrower fields, it's actually
much more prevalent. You canfind CEA structures, literally
in home yards as well, you canfind CEA structures in community
gardens. The curiosity in itselfis connecting different diverse

(05:28):
audiences, no matter they aredoing it for commercial purposes
or just to feed the localcommunity and help volunteers
learn about CEA. So it isexpanding at a much larger
scale.

Emily Cabrera (05:39):
I love that, it's not an all or nothing method,
that you could have row cropsand field crops and also have a
controlled-environment structureand possibly even diversify your
business strategy.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (05:50):
And that's why we are seeing this
exponentially growing in ourstate, because our weather is
favorable in comparison to otherstates, uh, mild winters. So
that means that we have to heatthe greenhouse for shorter
periods of time. Then the costof lighting is relatively lower
in comparison to northernstates, and that allows, then

(06:12):
the mix of well establishedgreenhouse operators, but also
field growers that wanted todiversify produce, higher
quality produce, and why notornamental plants? Then they can
add value to their farms,diversifying not only the crops,
but also diversifying theproduction methods. So then it's
a win-win situation for theconsumers, for the shippers, and

(06:34):
for the growers.

Emily Cabrera (06:35):
I think that leads into this next question
really well. Where do you seeCEA heading in the next five to
10 years and what could it meanfor food security?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (06:44):
I think we are seeing more and more CEA
produced products in thesupermarket. Pretty much all the
leafy greens that we consume,they are already cleaned and
they are produced ingreenhouses. So I think that
will expand. We also have verylarge tomato growers in the
state of Georgia, we also havecucumber growers. We have
mushroom being produced inshipping containers as well,

(07:08):
just because growers are lookingfor crops that have high value
to guarantee that they have thereturn of their investment. And
I think in the next five or 10years, we will see more crops
coming out of farms,particularly, making this
affordable for everybody,guaranteeing that then we have

(07:29):
access to fresh produce, amazingornamental plants. And we also
have, for example, the abilityto grow plants to extract
certain compounds that can beused in the pharmaceutical
world. So that's a little bit ofwhat we do in my lab. But then
there's more than just producinga head of lettuce or tomatoes,
and I think in the next 10years, so we will see a larger

(07:52):
diversity of crops that will beproduced and will be available
for us to consume.

Ruchika Kashyap (07:57):
And I feel like more growers being involved as
well, ranging from young growersand traditional growers trying
to adopt.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (08:06):
I see plant production, particularly for the
young generation, as somethingdistant from their reality. The
beauty of Controlled EnvironmentAg, is the flexibility we have
in terms of productionfacilities. You can grow plants
in your kitchen, in your garage.
So if you have lights, if youhave water, nutrients, and the
right temperature, and CO2 andOxygen available. So these

(08:30):
techniques makes plantproduction closer to the
consumer. So I think that is oneof the reasons, so there are
several others, you knoweconomics and the environmental
ones. But once you start growingplants at your home, and then
you cook the food with theplants that you produce,
agriculture becomes closer toyou. So then developing the

(08:53):
community, developing a businessthat is related to improving the
livelihood of people around youbecomes more relevant. We have
from the consumer to the urbanag growers to large growers
participating in this space. Sothat's why we are creating a
very strong industry, and Ithink that is something that we

(09:15):
will certainly capitalize in thenext couple of years.

Jordan Powers (09:19):
Whether you're growing in a row crop in a
field, whether you're growing inCEA, or doing a combination of
both. It goes back to thatscience and the art that you
talked about earlier, right?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (09:27):
Exactly.

Jordan Powers (09:27):
It's combining those things and making it more
accessible. You know, I lovedhearing you say for especially
children, but everyone to reallybe able to have that access to
the science and the art of thefood that we grow, which is
really fascinating.
Well, we want to thank you bothfor coming in and taking the
time today. And we can't omitsaying that you are two members
of this Fab Five of CEA, so youall are covering everything,

(09:49):
every aspect of ControlledEnvironment Ag, in this
expanding part of the industry,thank you all so much for taking
the time to come in today.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi (09:56):
Absolutely.
Yeah, so it was fun to talkabout what we do and why we do
it.

Ruchika Kashyap (09:59):
Thank you so much. It was pleasure being
here, and thank you for invitingus.

Sound Effect (10:03):
[music]

Jordan Powers (10:04):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.