USDA in Fort Pierce joins in indoor farm innovation, adds CEA research labs

AmplifiedAg, an agricultural technology company focused in controlled environment agriculture (CEA), announces the contract award from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Fort Pierce, Florida to supply vertical farming research labs to the agency’s Horticultural Research Laboratory. 

The labs will be customized to carry out CEA vegetable production research unique to the Fort Pierce laboratory.

AmplifiedAg has also supplied 16 vertical farming labs to the USDA-ARS U.S. Vegetable Research Lab in Charleston, South Carolina, designed to support its wide range of CEA research in vegetable growing processes, LED spectrum analysis, renewable energy, plant pathology, and plant breeding and selection for controlled environments. 

“The USDA has done a tremendous job of supporting research efforts in controlled environment agriculture, urban farming, and sustainable farming practices, and we’re extremely proud to be a provider for their continued innovation and research at ARS laboratories across the country,” says Don Taylor, CEO and Founder of AmplifiedAg.

In addition to supplying labs for third-party research, AmplifiedAg has an extensive R&D program that includes CEA cultivation of tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, potatoes, rice, medicinal herbs, and saplings such as Loblolly pines. The company is also collaborating with farms on the development of healthy fruits and vegetable transplants for greenhouse and field production.