Improvements to vertical farming, artificial lighting and environmental impact in Canada

垂直农业是一种越来越受欢迎的室内和节省空间的农业方法，涉及在人工照明的垂直层中种植粮食作物或其他植物。其优势包括为人口密集的城市地区或食物沙漠，如广阔的大都市或偏远的北方社区提供全年、本地和营养丰富的粮食生产。此外，在这种受控环境中种植植物可以减少用水量和肥料，同时防止作物受到破坏性天气条件的影响，并限制植物病虫害的发生。为了确定垂直农业是否可以针对不同的加拿大气候进行优化，该提案的总体目标是改进垂直农业模式，将40英尺的集装箱翻新为人工照明植物工厂，用于多叶绿色生产。这项为期5年的提案中概述的研究将探索和改善节能发光二极管（LED）的使用，以提高绿叶蔬菜的植物生长和营养价值，以及植物之间的间距，植物工厂中的空气流动和二氧化碳富集，以提高作物生产的高品质和营养产品，减少肥料和农药。将使用新的智能农业工具（实时电化学传感器和计算建模）。将研究这种商业垂直农业模式的环境影响或碳足迹，以确定加拿大不同气候（QC，尼亚加拉和北方阿尔伯塔）需要多少水，直接能源，肥料和基础设施，以及如何将其转化为传统的粮食生产成本。这项急需的研究的预期结果将为我们的合作伙伴和加拿大的受控环境农业部门提供一些具有成本效益的解决方案，以促进当地的粮食生产。此外，它还将促进进一步开展工作，调查旨在减少温室气体排放、促进养分循环、限制用水和减少农药使用的全球商业模式的管理和发展。

Vertical farming is an increasingly popular, indoor, and space-saving agricultural method that involves growing food crops or other plants in vertical layers with artificial lighting. Advantages include year-round, local and nutritious food production for dense urban areas or food deserts, such as sprawling metropolitans or remote northern communities. In addition, growing plants in this controlled environment may reduce water usage and fertilizer, all while protecting against crop-damaging weather conditions and limiting the incidence of plant pests/diseases. To determine if vertical farming can be optimized for diverse Canadian climates, the overall goal of this proposal is to improve a vertical farming model that refurbishes 40-foot shipping containers as artificial lighting plant factories for leafy green production. The research outlined in this 5-year proposal will explore and ameliorate the use of energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) that enhance plant growth and nutritional value in leafy greens, as well as spacing between plants, air movement and carbon dioxide enrichment in the plant factory to ramp up crop production of high quality and nutritious products with less fertilizer and without pesticides. New, smart agriculture tools (real-time electrochemical sensors and computational modeling) will be used. The environmental impact or carbon footprint of this commercial vertical farming model will be examined to determine how much water, direct energy, fertilizer, and infrastructure is needed for different Canadian climates (QC, Niagara and northern Alberta) and how this translates to conventional food production costs. Anticipated findings from this much needed research will provide some cost-efficient solutions to our partners and the controlled environmental agriculture sector in Canada for local food production. It will additionally facilitate further work investigating the management and development of a global business model aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting nutrient recycling, limiting water usage and reducing pesticide use.