Next-Gen Amplified Sustainable Agriculture (NASA) – Its’s About Space

To mitigate risks of global malnutrition, hunger, and conflict; food production should become more efficient and sustainable. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) can produce higher yields at reduced spatial and environmental footprints. This control improves management of key elements like water, nutrients, and nutritional outcomes. These advantages come with a cost however; of which energy is among the greatest. Greenhouses and vertical farms can have significant thermal management requirements, and increasingly, very large electricity demands. This project radically rethinks how CEA should be designed and implemented at small scales, large scales, and worlds beyond our own. The groundbreaking model-and-maker platform will transcend existing paradigms that historically have constrained CEA to specific locations, configurations, scales, or socioeconomic class. The program aims to 1) transform energy efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability of CEA operations, 2) increase global access to the advantages of CEA, and 3) grow the next generation of amplified agriculturalists.

Faculty Supervisor:

Rupp Carriveau;David Ting

Student:

Sadaf Ekhtiari;Chris Patterson;Sarah Nichol

Partner:

George Weston

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Windsor