Growing Further | A CEA Workshop for Open Field Growers
You’ve built a field operation that works — strong yields, established customers, hard-earned know-how. This half-day workshop, held the Tuesday before Indoor Ag-Con 2027 opens, is for growers like you who are curious about what protected and controlled environment agriculture could add to that foundation. Across four sessions, you’ll see how CEA can extend your operation — not replace it — one manageable step at a time
What You’ll Learn
SESSION 1 | 1:00 PM – 1:50 PM | Modular, Not Makeover
CEA adoption doesn’t require a glasshouse to get started, and this session makes that case with a map, not a pitch. The spectrum runs from hoop house to high tunnel to shade structure to full automation, and every step is buildable the same way: one acre under glass, then two, then four. “Modular, not makeover” is the session’s central idea — adoption here is additive, not disruptive. Expect real examples of growers who started with a single hoop house or tunnel and scaled over multiple seasons, plus a working framework for what actually determines the right entry point: crop mix, existing infrastructure, capital, and labor. The speaker is a prolific open-field grower with genuine CEA crossover – credibility that comes from having done both. Growers leave with a simple way to find their own realistic starting point on the spectrum.
SESSION 2 | 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM | Propagation: Own Your Start
Propagation is the lowest-risk, highest-leverage way into protected ag, and this session makes the case for growing your own starts instead of buying in. The payoff is immediate: tighter crop uniformity, better timing control, and a quality ceiling that’s hard to hit when someone else grows your seedlings. It’s also contained – a propagation house or greenhouse bay is a small-footprint, hands-on way to build real CEA experience without committing to a build-out you’re not ready for. Expect a practical walk-through of what a first propagation setup actually costs and requires, and how it sets up future scaling without demanding it. The speaker is a greenhouse producer who built out propagation capacity as their own first step into CEA- someone who’s lived the on-ramp, not just described it. Growers leave with a contained, fundable first project they could realistically execute within a season.
SESSION 3 | 3:00 PM – 3:50 PM | The Cash Case for CEA
This session grounds CEA in resource economics, not concept talk: the numbers, not the pitch. The efficiency gains are real: open-field production runs roughly 28–35 gallons of water per pound versus 1–3 gallons per pound under CEA, and a single square meter of CEA space can match the output of roughly 25 square meters in the field for fruiting crops (leafy greens scale differently). Those gains come with tradeoffs in energy and input costs, discussed honestly alongside the water and land savings, plus real reductions in pest and disease pressure. On the earn side, CEA opens a path to a more diversified customer base and production through the shoulder season – and the capital barrier isn’t faced alone: USDA NRCS, state-level programs, and domestic food-security funding mechanisms exist specifically to offset build-out costs. Growers leave with a back-of-envelope framework for what CEA could cost, save, and qualify for in funding.
SESSION 4| 4:00 PM – 4:50 PM | Diversification as Risk Mitigation
In this closing session we reframe CEA adoption around risk, not technology. The pitch isn’t disruption – it’s diversification against risks field growers already carry every season: weather volatility, labor uncertainty, market swings. A modest CEA footprint doesn’t replace open-field production; it smooths the revenue swings that come with depending on it alone. The session ties the workshop together: modular entry (Session 1), propagation as a first project (Session 2), and the funded economics behind it (Session 3) all point toward the same conclusion — this is a hedge, not a bet on unproven technology. Growers leave with a concrete next action and the contacts in the room to take it.
Your Registration Includes:
Admission to the Field Growers Guide workshop
Refreshments during the event
Complimentary access to the Indoor Ag-Con Exhibit Hall on March 24-25, 2027*
Access to exclusive tools, templates, and funding resource guides
Opportunities to connect with industry suppliers, consultants, and fellow farmers
