Specializing in the production of greens, herbs, strawberries and micro tomatoes in CEA, Michael Evans, Ph.D., researches techniques to maximize economic returns within the industry. Produce Grower caught up with Evans ahead of his Indoor Ag-Con panel, Rising Stars: Specialty Crops That Could Redefine CEA on Thursday, Feb. 12, 3:30 p.m. PST.
Are there any specialty crops that are gaining attention right now? Michael Evans: We're going through a change now in CEA, and you're hearing people talk about it: We got to remember that we're agriculture. We grow food and we grow it at a lower price than what we can sell it for, right? We got to get back to those ag roots.
With that in mind, I see people evaluating a lot of different things. I think there's a lot of really interesting research still going on in strawberries and adapting those to really work well in CEA. I think there are people out there that are doing really interesting work with caneberries: blackberries, raspberries, those types of caneberries in CEA, which involves a real change in how we handle the plant itself.
I think there are people that are growing CEA crops that are for protein. There might be people that would disagree, but I think it's fairly established that protein carries a higher value. The demand for protein in the world is going up. So, there are people looking at producing crops that are high in protein.
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