Controlled Environment

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

CEA covers two sectors: plant growing systems that evolved from greenhouses or aquaculture-based structures requiring light, and mushroom growing systems that evolved from fully enclosed structures with limited lighting. As of 2019, the mushroom industry was the largest CEA sector in the United States by facility size and total value of sales. The greenhouse industry is the second largest component, with vertical farming a quickly growing segment. The US mushroom growing sector reported 19,473 million square feet of indoor mushroom farms in the 2022-2023 growing cycle. The CEA plant growing sector reported 16.55 million square feet of indoor farms operating worldwide as of mid-2021.

In Their Own Story

In 2015, AeroFarms opened what was reportedly the largest indoor farm in the world in Newark, New Jersey. By 2018, it had built its 10th indoor farm. However, as of June 2023, AeroFarms filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing 'significant industry and capital market headwinds.' Premier Mushrooms, founded in 2001 as Colusa Mushrooms, was reportedly one of the first nearly fully closed-loop growing CEA facilities in the United States, with a farm in Colusa, California. Premier Mushroom went through bankruptcy restructuring in 2004 and 2009, eventually being sold to an international operator in 2020. The economics of indoor farming has been challenging, with high capital investment and energy operating costs—particularly the price of electricity—and several startups shut down as a result. A 2018 U.S. survey found only 51% of indoor farming operations profitable.

Reader's Guide

CEA facilities can range from fully 100% environmentally controlled enclosed closed-loop systems to automated glasshouses with computer controls for watering, lighting, and ventilation. Controllable variables include temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide, light (intensity, spectrum, duration, intervals), water quality, nutrient concentration, nutrient pH, cropping duration and density, cultivar, and pest controls. Plants are often grown in a soilless medium with supplemental lighting. Mushrooms are grown in a compost medium with temperature, humidity, lighting, supplemental nutrients, and atmospheric supplements. CEA technologies include hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaculture, and aquaponics. Currently, tomatoes, leafy greens, and herbs are the most economically viable crops.

Did You Know?

• CEA methods can increase food safety by removing sources of contamination and eliminate seasonality to create stable market pricing.
• A 2018 U.S. survey found only 51% of indoor farming operations profitable.
• CEA can produce up to 20 times as much pesticide-free produce as a similar-size plot of soil, according to a 2011 Science Illustrated article.
• Mushroom production can be adapted to abandoned and underutilized farm infrastructure including barns, outbuildings, high tunnels, and storage facilities.