Resilient Harvests Conference announces two keynote speakers
BREAKING NEWS — LEDs Magazine's parent company, Endeavor Business Media, and Resource Innovation Institute executive director Derek Smith have announced two key thought leaders presenting the keynotes at the inaugural Resilient Harvests Conference this September.
California Energy Commissioner Andrew McAllister is expected to share agency activities in rolling out strong clean-energy policy helping to shape the future of California environmental, sustainability, and efficiency regulations through statewide programs. Leveraging decades of energy efficiency expertise, McAllister is leading the CEC's charge to establish a global starting point for controlled environment agriculture energy guidance with the addition of California's Title 24, Part 6, Energy Code for Controlled Environment Horticulture in January 2023.
Horticulture and Crop Science professor Chieri Kubota from The Ohio State University manages the Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. According to a university video, Kubota was far removed from the agricultural sector during her early years growing up in the urban Tokyo environment. "I grew up without knowing anything about agriculture," she said. Kubota's interest in CEA was piqued in college by the controllable aspects of indoor farming versus field agriculture. Her research centers around the interaction of lighting technologies, nutrient and water management, and facilitating new CEA crops. Kubota's insights and passion for scientific exploration will bring a unique energy to her conference presentation on “Translating CEA to regional needs for a resilient agricultural future.”
Related: Controlled environment agriculture funding breeds optimism for post-pandemic growth
“Commissioner McAllister and Dr. Kubota represent the caliber of conversation-starters who will drive the dialogue at the Resilient Harvests Conference,” said Smith, who is program director for the Resilient Harvests Conference. “California leads globally on energy and climate policy, and Ohio State leads on CEA research. The merging of these topics will stoke the solutions we need to collaboratively build a resilient agricultural future.”
Related: Technology-enabled horticulture grabs investors and yields more plants
Endeavor Business Media and RII announced their partnership to drive CEA thought leadership toward practical insights earlier this year. The Nov. 1–2 event, taking place in Long Beach, Calif., is built around the policies, programs, and practices that will advance efficient greenhouse and vertical farming. A full conference agenda will be released in August. As a premier media partner, LEDs Magazine will reveal more details on the conference themes, speaker perspectives, and strategy in the coming weeks. Visit the Resilient Harvests Conference website for registration information, and connect with other CEA stakeholders, researchers, and professionals in the Resilient Harvests Conference LinkedIn group.
CARRIE MEADOWS is managing editor of LEDs Magazine, with 20 years’ experience in business-to-business publishing across technology markets including solid-state technology manufacturing, fiberoptic communications, machine vision, lasers and photonics, and LEDs and lighting.
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Carrie Meadows | Editor-in-Chief, LEDs Magazine
Carrie Meadows has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing and media industry. She worked with the PennWell Technology Group for more than 17 years, having been part of the editorial staff at Solid State Technology, Microlithography World, Lightwave, Portable Design, CleanRooms, Laser Focus World, and Vision Systems Design before the group was acquired by current parent company Endeavor Business Media.
Meadows has received finalist recognition for LEDs Magazine in the FOLIO Eddie Awards, and has volunteered as a judge on several B2B editorial awards committees. She received a BA in English literature from Saint Anselm College, and earned thesis honors in the college's Geisel Library. Without the patience to sit down and write a book of her own, she has gladly undertaken the role of editor for the writings of friends and family.
Meadows enjoys living in the beautiful but sometimes unpredictable four seasons of the New England region, volunteering with an animal shelter, reading (of course), and walking with friends and extended "dog family" in her spare time.
