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Indoor Agriculture Conference in Las Vegas

Increasing water challenges in the West and new technologies have combined to grow the market for fruits and vegetables produced indoors.

Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital, is hosting the 2nd Annual Indoor Agriculture Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada this Wednesday and Thursday.  She tells Brownfield that “indoor agriculture” is a catch-all term for hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic techniques for growing produce, whether in greenhouses, containers or warehouses.  She says, “The challenges folks face range from where they can site some of these projects. In certain jurisdictions there are still some fairly tight regulations on having farming in urban areas… all the way through to how to select a system, how to select a greenhouse, where to find a good horticulturalist.”

The state of indoor agriculture, Kerslake tells Brownfield Ag News, is strong and getting stronger, “We’re seeing a number of large scale projects come online now whether they’re folks like Hawling (sp) Tomatoes which just opened a new greenhouse in Utah or whether it’s four or five acre start-ups happening in cities across the country. We expect that we will see a doubling of the industry in the next four or five years.”

Indoor growing systems use less far less water than conventional production methods. She says some livestock operations are beginning to use it to produce forages.

Interview with Nicola Kerslake (9:00 mp3)

2nd Annual Indoor Agriculture Conference