Building Team Chemistry: The Bigger Picture Behind Cows & Climate
Conor McCabe
Animal Biology Graduate Student, UC Davis
Advancement of Strawberries for Indoor Environments: Mapping Chemical Compositions, Genetics, and Growing Conditions for Premium Flavor
Dr. Devin Peterson
The Ohio State UniversityCan Controlled Environment Agriculture by Used to Create More Flavorful Strawberries?
“Strawberries have a range of flavors that exist in nature, but that are not readily available to consumers through current production methods,” said FFAR Scientific Program Director Dr. John Reich, director of PIP. “By using controlled environment agriculture, we can better understand the genetic and environmental characteristics that influence flavor.”
Why this research is important?
Food production continues to face ongoing challenges including climate change impacts and limited resources. In response to a changing environment, Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) offers a strategy to design optimal growing conditions to enhance desirable crop traits and to minimize use of water or other inputs. Currently, CEA focuses on leafy greens and herbs, as these crops are well-suited for indoor growing environments. Yet CEA has the potential to provide a broad variety of flavorful, nutritious crops.
This research uses CEA to determine strawberry varieties that can be grown indoors and develop varieties that will yield premium, novel flavors.
The development of strawberry varieties for indoor farming holds tremendous promise for the future of agriculture. This project is an unprecedented deep dive into the molecular underpinnings of strawberry flavor. Our multidisciplinary team of Ohio State and USDA researchers will discover ways to select and grow strawberries with superior flavor, completely indoors, providing a giant leap forward for the indoor farming industry.Dr. Devin Peterson
Founding Director of the Flavor Research and Education Center and Director of the Foods for Health Research Initiative at The Ohio State University
Funded by PIP Participants
Precision Indoor Plants (PIP) is a public-private partnership created by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) to produce new flavorful, nutritious crops specially intended for indoor agriculture. By focusing on innovative science and technology, the consortium’s research efforts will increase our ability to produce crops that are high value, of consistent quality and desired by consumers. Ultimately, PIP can help food producers grow flavorful, nutritious food indoors.
FFAR’s initial $7.5 million investment is matched by the PIP participants for a total investment of $15 million to develop flavorful, nutritious crops for indoor agriculture.
How This Research Contributes to Our Mission
This research project supports FFAR’s Urban Food Systems Challenge Area by revolutionizing the production of nutritious foods that can be grown indoors and, ultimately, in any environment.
Matching Funders
