Using an Interdisciplinary Approach to Assess Controlled Environment Agriculture

Abstract

Abstract. Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) has attracted interest for addressing economic, environmental, and social challenges associated with current and future food systems. Controlled environment agriculture integrates engineering and science based approaches to crop production. Indoor production of crops is not new, but recent engineering and agronomic advances in CEA have focused on increasing productivity, resource use efficiencies, and product quality. However, economic and technological factors alone do not encompass the full spectrum of CEA development and diffusion. Many institutional and social issues surround the potential, feasibility, profitability, and acceptability of CEA in the food production system. The goal of this work was to utilize interdisciplinary assessments to situate CEA within the larger crop production system. Questions surrounding why, where, and how CEA should be deployed were explored. Approaches including engineering project management and planning, social sciences, and geography were utilized to evaluate the implementation of CEA. This work located CEA as a system that operated across boundaries involving many stakeholders. Results from the analyses showed that planning for the internal and external environment, location, crop choice, space utilization, and labor were important for returns on various investments. Beyond technological factors, CEA projects operate in socio-ecological systems that have context-specific economic, environmental, and social dynamics. Non-technological factors included culture, norms, institutions, and regulatory frameworks. As a result, in-depth interdisciplinary assessments that focus on physical, infrastructural and socio-cultural factors are required to provide a foundation for future interdisciplinary studies of CEA.