Fusion Farms

The Intersection Between Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Dra. Anabelle Morales Droz, President and Chief Science Officer of Fusion Farms will be moderating a VIRTUAL panel discussion on Vertical Farming / Indoor AgTech / CEA. 

From Dra. Morales, “I first started working and planning this event back in December 2019!!! Our first planning committee meeting was in January 2020. My dear colleague and friend, Dr. William Tuszynski asked me to moderate this panel and gave me the opportunity to select the panelists I wanted to talk to!”

Link to the event: https://www.sciencehistory.org/event/the-new-farm-indoor-agricultural-technology  

The Ask: Promote this event on every social media platform!

List of Panelists:

·         Fusion Farms – Kendell Lang, CEO https://www.fusionfarms.ag/ (Puerto Rico)

·         Badia Farms – Omar Al Jundi, Founder & CEO https://www.badiafarms.com/ (Dubai)

·         Common Farms – Jessica Fong, CEO & Founder https://commonfarms.com/ (Hong Kong)

·         AeroFarms – Marc Oshima, Co-Founder and CMO https://www.aerofarms.com/ (Newark, NJ)

– UPDATE: Dr. Stacy Kimmel, VP R&D will be joining us given the more technical audience

Details below.  

NOTE: 

1. Conference will be a VIRTUAL, not an in-person event.

2. Conference date is Thursday, SEPTEMBER 9th, 1-2 pm EST.

Details:

WHAT: One-hour panel discussion hosted by the Joseph Priestley Society.

PROGRAM TOPIC: Vertical Farming / Indoor AgTech / Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)

HOSTED BY: The Joseph Priestley Society (JPS) promotes a deeper understanding of science, technology, and industry, with an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship. Speakers are leaders from a wide variety of large and small chemical companies and the financial, consulting, and academic communities.

Events are held each month from September to April, with a hiatus in December.

LOCATION: History of Science Museum in Philadelphia, PA. *Panelists will attend remotely*

NOTES FROM EVENT ORGANIZER:

·         We will not hold the program in front of a live audience at the Science History Institute at 315 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia as originally planned.

·         The program will be live-streamed to a remote audience.

·         We are currently streaming in a partnership with the American Chemical Society which has brought 600-700 “attendees”: to our fully virtual October and November 2020 meetings.

NOTES FROM JPS:

·         Our tagline for the Joseph Priestley Society (JPS) is “The Intersection Between Innovation and Entrepreneurship”.

·         That means that while new technology is important (innovation), our main concern is to look at how companies have used those technologies to build profitable businesses.

·         That includes looking at the obstacles to success because, as we all know, it’s not a straight line from idea to profits.

·         Some of the issues we want to explore are what crops are economically viable, how cost-competitive they are with field-grown foods, and whether this is a niche market catering to higher-end consumers or has general applicability.

·         Our typical format for these is that the moderator will do a 5-minute introduction to the topic and each panelist does a 5-10 minute presentation.

·         We then open the floor for questions for discussion by the panelists.

PANELISTS TO ADDRESS:

1.      How economically viable are vertical/intense agricultural business operations. 

a.       It would be nice to see engineering components (mass and energy balances etc) though obviously for this forum, not in great detail.  But imparting to the audience that economic and engineering components underlie any business venture. I suspect the unifying theme would be “dense, business-driven, technology-using, semi-urban agriculture”, not necessarily vertical

2.      What are the prospects for this type of agriculture for different crop types, and how could it impact society in the future. 

a.       For example, we might like to think that this type of Ag could dramatically lessen fossil fuel consumption and afford the greater US population fresher, healthier produce, but could this vision really be met economically/environmentally?  So superficially I see some things happening for leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes and some other crops, but don’t quite see it for soy, corn, tree fruits, nuts etc.