"Our goal was simple but ambitious," says Thomas Larssen, President of CEAd at the Greentech Amsterdam collaboration announcement event, together with Rick Schneiders, Head of Future Foods at Siemens, and Dennis Levine, CEO of Water Garden Farms. "We wanted to bridge the gap between technology and transparency by integrating all operational systems into a single digital framework."
CEAd unveiled digiCEAd, a digital greenhouse platform developed in collaboration with Siemens. This initiative combines CEAd's experience in agricultural infrastructure with Siemens' specialized capabilities in AI, digital simulation, and automation.
"Everything in a facility, every tray, every seed, every movement, can now be digitally captured, analysed, and optimized," he explains. "We're bringing industrial-grade digital integration to greenhouse farming, and we believe this will make a difference down to the consumer level."
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Thomas Larssen, President of CEAd, welcoming the visitors at the Greentech announcement event
From engineering to intelligent farming
CEAd has been designing large-scale greenhouses since 1986, often exceeding 40 hectares. With digiCEAd, CEAd is transitioning from physical infrastructure to unified software ecosystems that optimize greenhouse operations from seeding to shipping.
Speaking at GreenTech Amsterdam, Thomas notes that the industry's biggest challenges are no longer purely technical. "The challenges we face aren't rooted in technical issues; we see opportunities to strengthen support for financing, marketing, and clearer communication of information overall. DigiCEAd helps de-risk the industry by giving better visibility and control over all operations."
The platform integrates ERP systems with equipment and labor tracking, offering detailed insights across all systems. "This transparency isn't just about management," he adds. "It's about building trust with investors, regulators, and consumers."
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The three speakers of the Greentech announcement event; Rick Schneiders (Head of Future Foods at Siemens), Dennis Levine (CEO of Water Garden Farms), and Thomas Larssen (President of CEAd)
Siemens: Automation for the next agricultural era
At the core of digiCEAd lies Siemens' digital twin technology: virtual greenhouse models that simulate and optimize real-world performance under varying environmental conditions.
Rick Schneiders, Head of Future Foods at Siemens, emphasizes during the Greentech talk that the future of agriculture depends on data-driven automation. "To build autonomous farming models, we first need to standardize and extract farm data," he says. "Then we can analyze it to predict yield, manage costs, and improve business outcomes."
He underscores the value of strategic partnerships: "Alone, you can come far. Together, you can go further. Our collaboration with CEAd and Water Garden Farms is global, and we believe it's truly driving the next step in agriculture."
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Visitors at the Greentech announcement event
Water Garden Farms: Vision in action
CEAd's first major pilot under the digiCEAd banner is being launched in partnership with Water Garden Farms, a disruptive agricultural venture that deploys next-generation, high-density greenhouses. Water Garden Farms is redefining food production with a mission-driven blueprint focused on building a more resilient and environmentally responsible food system and providing access to healthy, affordable food to people. During the Greentech talk, Dennis stressed the urgency of systemic change. Sharing how his daughter nearly drowned during extreme storms in North Carolina, he brought climate impact close to home.
"The real question is why we need to change agriculture," he says. "It's about reducing resource use, cutting waste, and creating a circular economy."
With a distinguished career in finance and as a recognized thought leader in climate action and environmental stewardship, Dennis sees enormous opportunity in this sector. "We're entering a food renaissance," he said. "With the right models, we can attract institutional capital and deploy billions of dollars into building more resilient, equitable food systems."
He highlighted the importance of meeting demands at both ends of the value chain. "Consumers want affordable, healthier, pesticide-free food. Retailers want consistent, affordable supply with longer shelf life. DigiCEAd helps align both."
Transparency from seed to shelf
An important aspect of digiCEAd is its electronic quality management system (EQMS), enabling full traceability.
"Providing a Food Safety system with features such as a barcode on the packaging, a consumer can access the entire history of their produce," Thomas said. "How it was seeded, how long it grew, what inputs were used, everything. It's transparency at the consumer level."
AI for a transitioning workforce
With many veteran engineers and agronomists nearing retirement, CEAd sees digiCEAd as a tool for preserving institutional knowledge.
"Through Siemens' AI and machine learning, we can transform decades of experience into digital models," he explained. "Future greenhouses won't start from scratch, and they'll build on proven design logic, but faster and smarter."
Smart cities, circular systems
Beyond its pilot, CEAd envisions future projects integrating greenhouses with urban infrastructure, including using waste heat from data centres to power food production.
"This is about making agriculture part of smart city design," Thomas adds. "Turning urban waste into agricultural energy is the kind of symbiosis we need."
Investing in a scalable, transparent future
The combined vision of CEAd and Siemens is to transform greenhouses into data-driven, high-yield, low-risk investments.
"Historically, farming has been seen as unpredictable when it comes to large-scale investments," Thomas notes. "But with the right technology, it can be as scalable and transparent as any industrial sector."
For more information:
Water Garden Farms
media@watergardenfarms.com
www.watergardenfarms.com
CEAd
sales@ceadl.com
https://ceadl.com/
Siemens© Tinneke Hattingh | VerticalFarmDaily.comcontact@siemens.com
www.siemens.com