{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Flanigan's Eco-Logic","title":"Dr. Evan Mills - Controlled Environment Agriculture","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/21e3c2a4\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2044,"description":"Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) produces less than 1% of all food in America, and consumes more energy than all open-field agriculture in the country. According to Ted's guest Dr. Evan Mills, CEA could increase and consume some 7% of national energy use... more than data centers, all enclosed malls, air travel, cement making, or chemical production. These findings are the highlight's of Evan's recent research paper titled, \"The Emergence of Indoor Agriculture as a Driver of Global Energy Demand.\" Cultivating crops in mechanized greenhouses and windowless plant factories is a big deal. The paper is a \"meta-analysis\" of 116 publications that document CEA practices involving 23 crops grown in 154 locations in 40 countries plus Antarctica.\nEvan puts CEA in context: For the past 10,000 years, agriculture has been almost exclusively outdoors. Early experiences with  growing food indoors dates back to the Roman Empire when the Emperor had his melons grown in greenhouses glazed with translucent stones. In the 1450s, Koreans grew some crops in heated greenhouses. But it wasn't until the 1960s that CEA took off in countries like Norway, Sweden, Russia, Japan, and Iceland... largely in cold climates where fresh vegetables are not available in the depths of winter. The research includes Inuit villages in Canada and other \"extreme CEA\" at the poles.\nEvan discusses types of CEA facilities: Some are low-tech, open greenhouses. Others are closed, windowless structures. No soil, no rain, no wind, etc. They use energy for lighting, heating, cooling, dehumidification, snow melting, refrigeration, and soil streaming. This energy use allows year-round, multi-crop farming of crops including lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, leafy greens, cucumbers, and micro-greens. Of all CEA crops, Evan explains, cannabis is the most energy intensive... demanding 23,200 megajoules/kilogram of marketable weight. This compares with an average of 78 MJ/kG for other plant factories. Being the largest...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/7kUbICrzk0aEuZffrVBGprBuBqZJlmqp9h-fda_2pHg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzM1MTQ0LzE3MTE1/NjgzMTctYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}