Chieri Kubota’s world is lush greens and pops of red. Vines of peppers and tomatoes that stretch toward a glass ceiling. Under her watch, a hydroponic system inside an Ohio State greenhouse nourishes lettuce and herbs, cucumbers and strawberries as they bask under sunlight until darkness triggers an LED light sensor.
It’s been a solid system for Kubota to teach Ohio State’s students the intricacies of greenhouse horticulture and engineering while she continues valuable research for those in the indoor farming industry. However, a considerable upgrade is on the way.
Ohio State will break ground in 2020 on the Controlled Environment Food Production Research Complex at Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory. It will be a first-of-its-kind academic facility that will allow Kubota and her students to continue to research and develop cutting edge greenhouse horticultural techniques.
“It will allow us to do a lot of different research and explore sophisticated approaches to greenhouse technology that aren’t available at any other institutions,” said Kubota, professor of Controlled Environment Agriculture within the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and faculty lead on the Research Complex project.
Kubota’s knowledge and research on controlled environment agriculture has been critical to the rise of the U.S. controlled environment agriculture industry since she arrived at the University of Arizona from Tokyo in 2002. It’s research that helps greenhouse growers continue to create jobs and produce fruits and vegetables for local stores and restaurants while vastly cutting the resources they use. When compared to outdoor farms, most greenhouse and indoor farms use 90% less water and little pesticides or herbicides, and significantly reduce food waste because of local shipping.
“Greenhouses and indoor farms have a very efficient system,” Kubota said. “There is only so much you can do in open fields but there’s tons you can do in controlled environments. As an extreme case, indoor farms use electrical lighting such as LEDs and do not need to rely on sunlight.”
“I’m interested in how can I help make production more efficient, more profitable and more friendly to the environment? Can we go further? I’m sort of pushing the edge.”
The possibility of the new facility is one reason Kubota came to Ohio State in 2017. And having her lead the effort is a major reason the project moved forward.
“I wonder if we would have gotten the support for this new facility if it hadn’t been for Chieri,” said Jim Metzger, professor and chair of Ohio State’s Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, who helped recruit Kubota to Ohio State. “She’s highly recognized nationally and internationally. People seek her out, whether it’s citing her in academic publications or companies sending employees to her workshops.”
Kubota’s research has produced more than 200 academic articles. Her online Indoor Ag Science Café, in which she and others deliver webinars, has more than 400 members, including those from the indoor farming community, academics, greenhouse engineers and technology producers. Also, she’s one of three team members on the Scientific Advisory Board for GLASE (Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering), a national consortium that aims to pioneer groundbreaking greenhouse technology.
Her research is boosting greenhouse and indoor farming industries that have shown tremendous growth in the United States this past decade. The 2019 USDA census shows a 132% increase in greenhouse production for vegetables and herbs from 2012 to 2017 in the United States.
The state with the largest growth? Ohio, at 292%.
With greenhouse growth in the state, the numerous horticultural industries and technology providers that surround Ohio and the chance to conduct research in a more seasonal climate, Kubota saw a wealth of opportunities when she arrived at Ohio State.
“I have a skillset and I want to be helpful,” she said. “I want my research to contribute in a major way.”
Refining technologies for efficient, sustainable crop production