Wednesday, February 26
Day Three:
Our Agricultural Future and Where We Go From Here
8:00 - 9:00AM Breakfast
La Jolla Ballroom – Salon E
9:00 - 9:45 AM Keynote: Our Agricultural Future: A Report on CEA Research
Dr. Mark Lefsrud, Dept. of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Introduced by Darrin Drollinger, ASABE
La Jolla Ballroom – General Session
10 - 10:45AM Farms of the Future 1: Urban Business Models, Crops, Grow
Environments
Urban agriculture is a broad term used to describe any form of agriculture in dense built environments. From vertical stacking in warehouses to green roofs and walls on and in commercial high-rises, the future of food offers a return to local sourcing and increasingly creative and efficient horticultural approaches. What business models are emerging, which crops are seeing the most success, how are energy and water resources being optimized, what are consumers demanding and where will human ingenuity and technology take us?
Djavid Abraham, Agritecture
Sam Schatz, AeroFarms
Grant Vandenbussche, Fifth Season
Chris Higgins, UrbanAg News
La Jolla Ballroom – General Session
11:00 - 11:45AM Farms of the Future 2: The Evolution and Role of Greenhouses
Greenhouses offer opportunities to capture natural sunlight and augment it with supplemental electric light to lengthen growing seasons, offer additional growth cycles, and increase yields. Through dynamic controls, greenhouse operators can optimize environmental conditions across a range of simple and sophisticated structures featuring various materials and technologies. The role of greenhouses in our agriculture future is expanding; could this lead to an increasing use of controls strategies by leaders in the market?
Janeen Wright, Greenhouse Grower
Paul Sellew, Little Leaf Farms
Erico Mattos, GLASE
Dave Nichols, AppHarvest
Kale Harbick, US Dept. of Agriculture
La Jolla Ballroom – General Session
12:00 - 12:45PM Lunch
La Jolla Ballroom – Salon E
1 - 1:45PM Precision and Price at Scale: A Technology Roadmap for the
Future of Agriculture
From automation to artificial intelligence, how are technologies of the future improving the delivery, accuracy, and efficiency of systems that consume energy and water, and how are energy and water resources possible to optimize for plant health and growth? Gain insights from these leading producers and market influencers.
Lauren Morlino, Efficiency Vermont
Chris Higgins, UrbanAg News
Matthew Gaboury, Calyx King & House of Cultivar
Grant Vandenbussche, Fifth Season
La Jolla Ballroom – General Session
2:00 - 2:45PM Adapting Codes for Buildings with Plants, Not Humans
Join these experts in building energy codes for a robust conversation on how reputable codes and standards have been evolving and will continue to change to address the unique buildings containing indoor grow environments, which have yet to be officially recognized by international building code. Panelists will discuss a range of state, national and global energy codes, including the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), California’s Title 24 Requirements and several ASHRAE standards.
Jen Amann, ACEEE
Alexi Miller, New Buildings Institute
Kyle Booth, Energy Solutions
Keith Coursin, Desert Aire
La Jolla Ballroom – General Session
3:00 - 3:30PM Keynote: Finding common ground in the search for EEMs for
Indoor Agriculture
Dr. Sabeh is a leader in the field of energy efficiency in greenhouse and indoor design and operation. She will summarize her deep expertise in identifying energy-saving measures in cultivation environments to provide top recommendations for optimizing grow facilities in any location and climate. Dr. Sabeh will review energy-restricting actions taken by various local jurisdictions. She will point out where these actions are in conflict with crop productivity and quality, and will offer additional new energy efficiency measures to help find common ground.
Dr. Nadia Sabeh, Dr. Greenhouse
Introduced by Thao Chao, California Energy Commission (invited)
3:45 - 4:30PM Breakout Sessions
HVAC Best Practices for Controlled Environment Agriculture
Join in an expert discussion about emerging best practices on optimizing energy efficiency and plant growth. Hear guidance on a range of issues, such as determining and achieving the right temperature set points and understanding vapor pressure differential and how to monitor it in your grow environments. Learn from our panel of speakers who contributed to RII’s peer-reviewed Best Practices Guide: HVAC for Cannabis Cultivation & Controlled Environment Agriculture.
Rob Battiston, InSpire Transpiration Solutions
Michael Leavitt, Root Engineers
Keith Coursin, Desert Aire
Gretchen Schimelpfenig, Resource Innovation Institute
Cardiff Room: First Floor
Best Practices from Utility Program Models
Hear about new and innovative energy efficiency program designs for controlled agricultural environments, how our panel of utility leaders address cost-effectiveness in this new market segment, how they interact with new government regulations, and how they plan to verify savings amidst the variety of cultivation settings and methods.
Rosemary Jojic, D+R International
Joe Sullivan, Cultivate Energy Optimization
Doug Oppedal, Evergreen Consulting
Fran Boucher, National Grid
Gary Corlett, Southern California Edison
Coronado Room: First Floor
Powering the future, renewing agricultural models: Solar, storage & microgrids
How are indoor cultivation facilities reducing their carbon footprints while increasing their energy independence? These market actors will share their perspectives on a range of issues, including how to size a renewable energy commitment to how to obtain carbon-neutral backup power. Hear their case studies on indoor cultivation facilities that are recapturing CO2 from industrial facility neighbors, and join in the debate about the feasibility of a net zero energy indoor cultivation facility.
Travis Graham, Schneider Electric
Duncan Campbell, Scale Microgrid Solutions
Mike Mattioli, Leaf California
Newport Room: First Floor
4:45PM Conference Wrap Up: Next Steps
John Morris, D+R International
5:00PM Adjourn