The economic case for controlled environment agriculture – CEA 2019
Agri-TechE 
G’s Fresh produces lettuce and other salad crops to meet the highly variable consumer demand for high quality, fresh produce. Ben Barnes is investigating how controlled environment agriculture can support the business.
Two big questions
The organisation has a large standard greenhouse facility that is used to propagate seedlings for planting out into the field. The project is looking at two big questions: Can we increase the efficiency of the propagation facility in terms of getting a more homogenous crop? Is it feasible to produce baby leaf crops during the winter at an affordable price point?
- Smart Prop is looking at increasing growth and making stronger plants so they transplant better back into the field
- Winter Grow is a pre-commercial trial into wintertime growing.
Ben explains: “I’m going to be talking at the Agri-TechE event about the commercial journey in terms of the go and no-go decision-making process and what the key things are that we need to learn in order to be able to make those kind of investment decisions. “Smart Prop is a KTP, a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, partly paid for by Innovate UK and partly by G’s, in collaboration with Harper Adams University. “G’s supply baby leaf crops all year round, with much of the winter supply grown in Spain and Italy. In summertime we produce a huge amount of outdoor salad crop, particularly lettuces and celery.
Smart Prop is looking at how we can increase the long-term viability and profitability of both of those parts of the business. “One element of this is the development of ‘lighting recipes’ to enhance plant growth characteristics. We’ve got multi-spectrum LED lights, so we can turn up the different amounts of red, blue, green and white, and even far red light. These are fairly expensive, so once we have worked out what works best we can buy fixed spectrum lights which are a tenth of the cost.
Collaboration with Growing Underground
“G’s has a relationship in Growing Underground based in Clapham, London. Although we are not directly connected, Greg, their grower, and myself are collaborating for our mutual benefit. They do supply quite a bit of produce to clients and chefs as well as some of the premium retailers.”
“In terms of supply and distribution it may actually makes more sense to have production closer to a distribution centre rather than within an urban centre, but we haven’t got that far yet.
“Within our project we have a growtainer, which is a basic hydroponic system inside a shipping container. To bring this up to scientific experimental specs we asked Cambridge HOK to refurbish it and put in new systems that are easier to use and more reliable. This is based at the Second Willow, our nursery site.
“I’ve actually just finished harvesting our first trial, a media trial; we’re testing all the different growing media and I’m going to process those results to see what comes out on top. There are so many variables!
“We’re trying to optimise those variables. You think LED’s are very efficient, but they still generate a heck of a lot of heat when you’ve got them essentially turned up to full. It is more about keeping the space cool, and the plants obviously are transpirating so we’ve got dehumidifiers in there sucking the moisture out of the air.
“Another option would be to take out heat and put it into the greenhouse, which would be a cost-saving. “Actually one of the biggest problems with the vertical farming concept is this interaction between moisture and temperature. You’ve got the two factors constantly fighting against each other and that ends up sucking huge amounts of energy if you’re not careful.”
Ben will be talking about his trials and the economic case for controlled environment agriculture ‘Bringing The Outside In – Innovating for Controlled Environment Agriculture’ taking place on 19th March from 10.00 – 16.00 at Rothamsted Research. It will look at the different growing systems, emerging technologies, the challenges of implementing a system and the logistics involved with integrating a controlled environment agriculture into the food value chain.
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For centuries farmers have walked the fields to assess the rate of emergence of recently sowed crops, signs of disease and water stress. Now many are using drones to visualise the whole field and using special cameras to assess the rate of growth and provide early detection of pests or nutrient deficiency.
Agri-TechE 
There is a big market opportunity for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) according to Rhydian Beynon-Davies, Head of Novel Growing Systems at Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC). He comments: “The world will need sustainable solutions to an increasing extent in the future and we should be the ones to supply those solutions.
Rhydian concludes: “Going forward I think we will see systems which are sub-divided for production of individual varieties, rather than the cavernous spaces growing multiple crops that are common in most current commercial CEA systems.
“The big challenge of Controlled Environment Production (CEP) is to demonstrate to retailers that it can bring tangible benefits to their supply chain and their customers,” comments Kate Hofman, co-founder of GrowUp Farms. She is speaking at the Agri-TechE conference on controlled environment production taking place at Rothamsted Research on 19 March.
“Our prototype urban farm showed that it was possible to use CEP commercially, and we were able to demonstrate the demand for the produce we could grow. This ranged from specialist micro-greens and cut herbs through to mixed baby leaf salad. We sold directly into restaurants, through a New Covent Garden distributor and also through bricks and mortar supermarkets and Farmdrop, the online supermarket.
“We do think there is the potential for indoor farming to be commercially viable and there are some immediate gains for growing crops such as leafy salads in high hygiene environments,” comments Lindsay Hargreaves, MD of Frederick Hiam, a Suffolk-based fresh produce business. He is chairing the Agri-TechE conference on controlled environment cultivation taking place at Rothamsted Research on 19 March.
“There is also seasonality. Thirty years ago the berry market in the UK had a short growing season; now strawberries are a long season as well as high value crop, not just a luxury available for a few weeks. Bringing new crops indoors could open up big markets for UK growers.”
“However, it is coming. I am sure a few years ago we wouldn’t have imagined that we would have a computer in our pockets so powerful that you could talk face-to-face with someone across the world! You need to have vision.”
Tomatoes, strawberries and other crops grown undercover are a rich source of active plant ingredients such as lycopene, anticyanins and isoflavones that are used in the cosmetic and health industries. A workshop hosted by Niab will be reviewing the options for growers in the emerging bioeconomy on Friday 10th November during Agri-Tech’s Agri-TechE Week 2017.
Sitting thirty-three meters underneath the busy streets of Clapham, a disused air raid shelter from the Second World War is currently producing sustainable and fresh produce, thanks to a new initiative called Growing Underground. These forgotten tunnels provide a pest-free, climate-controlled environment that is close to point of need. This and other innovative new approaches will be discussed at the upcoming Agri-TechE Pollinator meeting “Undercover Agents – New Technologies for Controlled Environment Production” at the Sainsbury Laboratory on 22nd March 2016. 
Aponic Ltd has developed a soilless growing system that uses 90 per cent less water than traditional agriculture, does not emit harmful run-off into the environment, and reduces the dependence on fossil fuels. These advantages have attracted both national and international interest. 
Also on show will be a demonstration of a compact biofermenter by Algenuity, which can be used to grow algae as well as to better understand the best conditions to grow particular algae strains in specific locations worldwide. Andrew Spicer of Algenuity explains: “Algae are tiny microorganisms most closely related to plants and many are a rich source of EPA/DHA omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish oil. This nutrient is associated with protection against a number of major diseases including coronary heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.
Work at the John Innes Centre is directed at making this crop more desirable to the farmers by improving yields, taste, performance and market value. The research institute has collected peas of all different varieties over many years and is using new knowledge about its pulse genetic resources to benefit traditional breeding. Farmers and environmentalists are keen to ensure that sprays are only used when they are needed.
