AI for Sustainability

By 2050, over 80% of the global population will live in cities while consuming food, water, and energy extracted far from the point of consumption. At present, California and Florida  produce approximately 75% of our nation’s fruit and vegetable supply, yet represent just 2% of the nation’s farmland. In California, this super concentration of fruits and vegetables and associated water withdrawals affects wildlife, poisoning the water supply with selenium and salts, and causing ground subsidence exceeding 28 feet in some areas. Adding to these concerns, approximately 5% of the natural gas supply (i.e., 2% of global energy production) is consumed to produce nitrogen fertilizers. Depletion of non-renewable phosphorus reserves has been addressed extensively. Around 2035, phosphorus is expected to peak, and its price has doubled in the past 10 years. Our food system may not be sustainable due to projected nutrient cost or scarcity, and the wide-spread eutrophication of our water supplies. However, emerging high-performance technologies (e.g., controlled environment agriculture, hydroponics, membrane filtration) could decouple production from geographic constraints by enabling production in locations or with alternative feedstocks not traditionally used in mainstream production.

The Institute team, with the support of two USDA projects, is designing, building and operating pilot-Testbeds to couple the water and nutrients in domestic wastewater with high-productivity Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems. Harnessing recent advances in wastewater treatment, food security, data analytics, and AI, the Institute is developing novel optimized technology-driven CEAs that can achieve high-areal vegetable productivity and increase food and nutritional security of urban communities with low operating cost and reduced energy consumption.