Events
Why are Data Important in CEA?
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is closely linked with data. Data drive most of the operations and processes, and evaluate growth protocols and profitability targets. As data are particularly important to all CEA operations, it is essential to understand how data can be used for and help with plant health surveillance, transparency, traceability and so much more.
We bring together three companies from our membership Priva, LettUs Grow and Cultinova:
- Kathryn Smethurst – Horticulture Sales Manager at Priva
- Dan Peel – Product Manager at LettUs Grow
- Nicole Thorpe – Director of Cultinova and Vice Chair of FarmTech Society
The discussion between the panelists will address the below questions:
- Why is data in CEA important?
- Which are the areas that data can be used for and help with?
- Which are the main challenges with data? How to share and safeguard your data?
- What are the latest opportunities related to data?
- The role of data in investment, consumers acceptance and growers?
At the end of the panel discussion, the panellists will answer questions of the audience.
Kathryn Smethurst is involved in Business Development managing the UK, associated Protected territories and also Norway for Priva the globally recognised brand for supply of Horticultural and Building controls, irrigation rigs, management information and ancillary items. She has worked for Priva for eight years and with a background in Building Automation of fourteen years prior to this has a keen interest for promotion of Vertical Farming within the UK working in conjunction with the UKUAT.
Dan Peel is the Product Manager at LettUs Grow. His role allows him to bring together keen interests in agriculture and sustainability as well as experience as a grower and academic in climate and soil science to develop new technologies within food production. As part of the founding team at LettUs Grow and off the back of his time as a grower at Grow Bristol, Dan now focuses on bringing the needs of farm operators, plants and business owners to the fore and guiding the development of novel hardware and software for CEA”
Nicole Thorpe is Co Founder and Director of Cultinova, a UK – German based company specialising in IoT solutions for efficient and sustainable production in controlled environments. With their no code software platform C365, Cultinova apply industry 4.0 principles to CEA, capturing data and digitising processes for full traceability, quality control and continuous improvement. Nicole’s mission is to leverage data to ensure food safety, quality and trust, whilst contributing to improving financial and environmental sustainability of indoor farming operations. She is also Vice Chair of the FarmTech Society and Advisory Board member of UKUAT, working alongside industry experts committed to laying solid foundations for the Controlled Environment Agriculture industry.