2019 ASHS Annual Conference

The use of controlled environments (CE) either in the form of greenhouses or vertical farms has increased in terms of adoption around the world and also in terms of investment into the commercial sector.Even though there is a renewed interest in producing plants in controlled environments, there are still several scientific, economic, environmental, and production challenges. In addition, misinformation about the sustainability and capabilities of these systems still remains. Since this is a worldwide movement, several research programs around the world are currently executing research to address the challenges of commercial controlled environment production systems. The leading research countries include the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, China, US among others. The intent of this workshop is to have an exchange of information of the research efforts around the world.

The workshop will have two presentations from international speakers and one presentation from a national speaker. After presentations, two more panelists will join the invited speakers for the discussion session.

In order to facilitate audience participation and to create a dynamic interaction between the panelists and the audience, a debate format will be followed:

1. The audience will have the opportunity to ask a “bigger picture” question.
2. We encourage that up to two of the panelists answer the question, each panelist will have a buzzer (light) in front of them and the first two panelist that activate the buzzer will have 2 minutes to answer the question. If after 5-10 seconds no “buzzers” are activated, we will move to the next question. This format will allow for limited time per question and increase the number of discussion points.