Jul 27, 2020
Get to know the amazing team at Agritecture! This interview features Eric Roth, CEA Operations Specialist at Agritecture Consulting!
How did you first get involved with Agritecture?
I currently live in Chicago, IL and have been working with Agritecture since October of 2019. I first got involved with Agritecture when attending NYC Agtech week in July of the same year. I had known about Henry and the company for years being in the urban agriculture space for almost a decade, but this was my first real introduction to some of the work they’ve been involved with and the urban agriculture community they’ve helped build in NYC and around the world. I immediately knew this was something I wanted to be a part of, so I applied and interviewed for the position they were looking to fill, and the rest is history.
As the CEA operations specialist, how has your position evolved?
While I was hired for my experience in CEA operations, my role has evolved to take on more digital marketing and content creation. I have prior work and school experience in film production and digital media, so taking on the task of editing the wide array of video content we’ve been creating was a natural evolution for me.
What prior experience did you bring with you to Agritecture?
I have about 7 years of operational experience in both small and large scale CEA. In 2011, I co-founded Greens & Gills, Chicago’s first licensed indoor aquaponic farm. We raised tilapia and grew a wide variety of leafy greens, with a focus on microgreens. In 2015, we were acquired by FarmedHere, one of the largest vertical farms built to date, where I served as Director of Agriculture. After FarmedHere’s eventual shutdown, I spent some time consulting with a few urban agriculture companies before deciding to dive into software development with hopes to better understand the role that software can play in improving CEA operations. Agritecture was a natural fit for the skills and experience I have acquired over my career from urban agriculture to video production to software development.
What is one of your favorite projects?
Working with Madina Plant Company was a very interesting and challenging project for me early on in my time with Agritecture. I was in charge of developing the Integrated Pest Management plan, so researching all the pest issues farmers face in the Middle East region was all new information for me. At first, what seemed to be a daunting task, through research and communication with our team, I was able to create a valuable deliverable to one of our larger clients. It was fascinating to come to the realization of how critically important CEA farms are in regions that deal with unfathomable swarms of locusts, not to mention other harmful pests, on top of increasingly high temperatures. It was gratifying to add value to a company providing fresh produce for their community no matter what challenges their climate throws at them.
What part of controlled environment agriculture excites you the most?
It excites me knowing that, up until very recently, we have largely been in the primitive stages of vertical farming and CEA. I believe that over the coming years, the technological advancements made in energy efficiency, LED lighting and operational automation will dramatically improve the financial viability of these operations. There is something very special about waking up on a freezing morning in February in a city like Chicago and stepping into your 75 degree fahrenheit farm teaming with edible greenery that is providing your income and the income of those you employ. It excites me to know that more and more people will experience that gratification as more CEA farms are born in cold weather climates.
Where do you hope to see the industry in 5 years?
I hope to see the entrepreneurs entering the space to be more informed and prepared than any of their predecessors when it comes to planning and executing a CEA business. On top of more and more businesses starting and becoming profitable, I hope to see CEA cleverly solving waste issues. For example, there are thousands of aquaculture facilities, or fish farms, that have huge amounts of waste that is actually organic plant food. I’d love to see more of these facilities using that fish waste as organic fertilizer in greenhouses to grow a massive amount of vegetables, closing the waste loop and creating circular agricultural models.
What 2020 has taught me is that, in many cases, we don’t need to commute to these large, archaic, energy-wasting office spaces to be effective at our jobs. In the next 5 years, I hope to see local governments and corporations investing in repurposing these buildings to better serve their communities by growing healthy, local food and providing green spaces and jobs.