May 2022 - 49

MANAGEMENT
their food from are using good farming practices. For example, using more
biologicals instead of pesticides; good bugs fighting bad bugs.
" When I was in school, LEDs were so much in the future, it was like flying
cars. Now, it's commonplace everywhere, even in your house. Climate
control systems are way more advanced than they were eight years ago.
The whole goal now is autonomous growing, keeping your settings at a
steady pace throughout the year automatically. The grower no longer has
to manipulate the settings or crunch the numbers. "
He was painting a picture of the greenhouse of today and the kind of
grower who will be operating and working in that greenhouse tomorrow as
well. McCullar pointed out that what's driving the technology revolution is
not a desire to employ fewer people or a reaction to the labor shortage. It's
the availability of technology that's making decision-making more precise.
" If you look up above the floor level, we have a scanning system that
goes back and forth captures images twice a day. It's sort of like Google
Earth in my greenhouse. It's pretty cool to be able to view your crop ... you
can see subtle changes, differences in the greenhouse from one side to the
other. I can tell someone we have microclimates, but I can see it with iUNU
and I can prove it. It's an AI learning system and I can compare images
from the same day last year that I'm on this year. It helps me decide things
like how we use that data, how we make decisions on our nutrients, how
we run our climate. Technology can be a very powerful tool. "
One of the hot topics in the greenhouse industry is the concept of
an autonomous facility. Part of it is being driven by the availability of
technology, part of it by the scarcity of labor, and part of it by the promise
of increased production and decreased costs. What is so attractive about
an autonomous greenhouse? Is it the desire to deal with a seemingly
endless scarcity of workers and the fact that the average grower is 57
years old?
" There's an (return on investment) ROI equation and it has very little to
do with labor. For example, our facility was designed with the idea that we
will have a certain amount of people, and for our business model to make
sense, for the numbers to work, we have to be fairly autonomous. We need
the best settings for climate control, keeping the climate steady, no big
spikes and dips for things like temperature, humidity, and light.
Pure Green Farms grows, packs, and ships leafy greens hands-free in the Midwest.
Located in South Bend, Indiana, the growing facility uses environmentally friendly
practices to grow greens through its high-tech, climate-controlled space.
One of the hot topics in
the greenhouse industry
is the concept of an
autonomous facility.
" An autonomous growing system also has to be energy efficient. I don't
think the human aspect goes away but the sensors and the instruments
will just get better and better so you will need fewer people in the
greenhouse. We're removing that feeling where, 'Oh, it feels like the
temperature is too hot so I'm going to make a change to the settings.' That
grower can't see the overall outcome because he or she doesn't have all
the data in their head of what happened the last time they tried to do that.
But the computer does. What I think we'll see is a partnership between
growers and technology. Systems will analyze data and growers will match
it with their perception of what's really happening in the physical space. "
In the end, it turns out that the labor shortage isn't the driver of using
increased technology in the greenhouse. Students are coming out pretty
well prepared for life as a grower and the industry is seeing a qualified
group of graduates who are familiar with technology, comfortable with
technology, and eager to put it to use.
The reality is that the real problem is at the entry level, where the CEA
industry is experiencing the same issues and problems as virtually every
other industry in America. Technology will allow advanced greenhouse
operations to compensate for the lack of labor. Older greenhouses that
haven't been renovated or kept up with technological advances are the
ones that will continue to experience growing labor pains.
Carl Silverberg is senior vice president of outreach and public affairs. He can be
reached at csilverberg@iunu.com.
GREENHOUSE PRODUCT NEWS 49
May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2022
