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1 week ago
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Summary
Infinite Agriculture (IA) is the emerging agricultural sector of growing food which, in contrast with conventional open-field agriculture, is characterized by being regenerative, self-perpetuating, circular, closed-loop and controlled-environment. IA encompasses and is anchored by its principal innovations of vertical farming, lab-grown meat, lab-grown seafoods, mushroom mycelial cultures, insect-based feed protein, microalgae cultures and more – and with outsized beneficial environmental and economic impact including, among others, significantly reduced land and water requirements, no pesticides, and 24/7-365 operation independent of geography, weather, season and climate. IA is poised to grow and expand side by side with and relative to conventional high-input open-field agriculture – moving toward the long-overdue great re-balancing of the planetary food systems toward sustainability and resilience. Further, IA is also key to realizing food production in bioregenerative space life support for the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Speaker Bio
Prof. Joel Cuello, Ph.D. is Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Director of the Biosystems Engineering (BioImagineering) Laboratory, and Director of Graduate Studies for Interdisciplinary Applied Biosciences (Bioeconomy and New Food Systems) at The University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. He is also Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the International Association for Vertical Farming (AVF) based in Munich, Germany. A globally recognized expert in the engineering of sustainable biological and agricultural systems, Prof. Cuello has 33 years of experience in research, teaching and outreach on innovations in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) for the sustainable production of food and high-value bioproducts, including for bioregenerative space life support applications. He has collaborated widely and globally and has led his BioImagineering Team in designing original innovations ranging from microalgae photobioreactors to growing structures for vertical farms and future extraterrestrial human habitats. Prof. Cuello is the Principal Inventor of the patented Accordion Photobioreactor Series, the V- Hive Vertical Green Box and the Mobile & Modular Vertical Farm as well as of the patent- pending Intelligent Aeroponic Microgravity & Earth Nutrient Delivery System (I-AMENDS) for Bioregenerative Space Life Support and Earth Applications, the BORING Vertical Farm for the Moon and Mars, and a suite of new bioreactors, among others. He has published over 100 refereed journal publications and 12 book chapters and has delivered over 800 professional presentations around the world. The North American Produce Grower magazine named Prof. Cuello in 2018 as one of the Seven Leading People in Produce, “pushing the produce industry forward.” And in 2020, he was cited as one of the “best world-class visionaries” and “paramount thinkers of the 21st century” by NTT Disruption, the exponential-technologies subsidiary of the Tokyo-based global telecommunication company NTT Corporation. Prof. Cuello conducted his postdoctoral research in the Controlled Ecological Life Support System Division at NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida as a U.S. National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate. He earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural & Biological Engineering, with Minor in Chemical Engineering, from The Pennsylvania State University in 1994. He also earned two M.S. degrees (Agricultural & Biological Engineering; Plant Physiology) from The Pennsylvania State University. He obtained his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. He is a Lifetime Visiting Professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China and a Faculty Fellow at De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Email: cuelloj@arizona.edu.
English (US)