The second annual Indoor Agriculture Conference will be hosted at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Desert Living Center May 14 – 15, 2014. The conference unites farmers, entrepreneurs, suppliers, technology geeks, investors, researchers and policy makers in a discussion. Speaking on subjects ranging from growing produce in space to food shortage and scalability of indoor farms, the Indoor Agriculture Conference will host two full days of education on environmental control technology, best practices, financing options and future agriculture trends.
Christopher Steele, of Swedish based Heliospectra AB, will be part of the second day panel discussion on Selecting a Lighting System. Heliospectra is specialized in smart LED lighting for plants that maximize energy savings and increase production efficiencies. Their lighting systems are designed to take feedback from plants, and change based on the information. Their technology is a part of the prototype of growing produce in space.
Kevin Foley, sustainability coordinator at Premier Mushrooms, will take the stage on the second day on How to Scale an Existing Indoor Farm. Kevin focuses on practices that improve the farm’s environmental impact, increasing efficiencies and limiting waste. The northern California mushroom farm has expanded from 16 growing rooms to 64 in seven years. Their vertical growing system allows for greater consistency and quality control, and 300,000 pounds of mushrooms per week. In 2012 they were recognized in Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000.
Caleb Harper, founder and lead researcher of MIT CityFARM, will speak the first day on leveraging technology for indoor farming. His current work is focused in the areas of building integrated and controlled environment agriculture. Caleb has also recently launched the OpenAG project and together with strategic partners from industry, government and academia is developing the world’s first open source “AG Tech” research.
Additional featured speakers include, Chris Higgins of Hort Americas, David Foster of USDA, Don Nishiguchi of Whole Foods Market, and Pam Marrone of Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc.
Co-hosted by Newbean Capital and the Black Emerald Group, and sponsored by Hort Americas, Illumitex and Johnny Seeds, the Indoor Agriculture Conference highlights the accelerating greenhouse, container and vertical farming trend that is sweeping urban centers and inclement environments around the world.
Conference registration is now open.
For the most up-to-date information on the 2014 Indoor Agriculture Conference, visit http://www.indoor.ag .
Click here to see more...