Transforming Agriculture

UW becomes a leader in controlled environmental agriculture.

The University of Wyoming is quickly becoming a leader in controlled environmental agriculture, or CEA, thanks to research funding, state-of-the-art facilities, industry collaboration and institutional leadership.

In a way, controlled agriculture goes all the way back to 14–37 A.D., when Roman emperor Tiberius Caesar had the first moving plant beds built, allowing him to eat his doctor-prescribed cucumbers year-round. Today, CEA uses a technology-based approach to growing crops indoors, including optimizing temperature, lighting, air flow and watering as well as farming in vertical spaces.

Growing Expertise

In 2023, UW launched the Plant Growth and Phenotyping Facility located on the fifth floor of the Science Initiative Building, which includes a sprawling 6,400-square-foot advanced complex of research spaces and greenhouses.

The same year, the state of Wyoming invested $20 million in the vertical farming company Plenty Unlimited Inc., which is expanding its Wyoming operation. In response to this growing industry, UW launched the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center to build a curriculum in CEA and work closely with related businesses around the state. These efforts receive crucial support from the Wyoming Innovation Partnership to help build a skilled workforce.

“This is an exciting new industry that has tremendous potential to boost Wyoming’s economy, to diversify the state’s important agriculture industry and to drive job creation and innovation,” UW President Ed Seidel says. “Our new Controlled Environment Agriculture Center is poised to become a destination for research, training and workforce development in this rapidly growing sector in the fresh produce industry.”

National Science Foundation Collaboration

In 2024, the National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused Collaborations program awarded UW a $2.08 million grant aimed at exploring the potential of indoor farming practices to address climate-resilience challenges. Carmela Rosaria Guadagno, director of the Plant Growth and Phenotyping Facility and associate director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, leads UW’s core science research, which examines how plants and microbes interact in hydroponic systems and affect crop yield. The University of New Mexico will oversee the socioeconomic aspects of the project. Other institutions collaborating on the grant include the University of South Dakota, New Mexico State University and the Santa Fe Community College.

“CEA can be strategically leveraged to foster food safety and to build economic sustainability within our regions,” Guadagno says. “By partnering with states facing similar challenges, we aim to empower communities to thrive under future climates while driving tech innovation and workforce development in CEA.”

UW will collaborate closely with tribal communities, including those on Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation, to develop targeted education while building infrastructure and outreach activities for CEA development. Planned efforts will include food and agricultural workshops for Native American high school students and community members and educational experiences through UW’s Native American Summer Institute.

Professor Cynthia Weinig, a co-investigator from UW’s Department of Botany, highlights the significance of microbial research in CEA settings.

 

“CEA provides many advantages in food production over conventional field agriculture, such as improved efficiency in water use,” she says. “We will investigate the distribution and function of microbes in improving plant productivity in CEA settings, offering a potential avenue to increase yields and crop quality for all communities.”

Associate Professor Jill Keith, a co-investigator from UW’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, emphasizes the importance of engaging stakeholders: “Innovative efforts to address food and nutrition security in rural communities are vital. Engaging stakeholders, especially tribal community members with traditional ecological knowledge, to guide work around climate resilience is key to this project.”

The Future of Controlled Agriculture

As part of Wyoming Innovation Partnership efforts to grow the economy and create a trained workforce in controlled environmental agriculture (CEA), Carmela Rosaria Guadagno, associate director of UW’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, coordinated the first interdisciplinary course in CEA this past summer. The course integrated expertise from seven departments on campus and other business stakeholders in partnership with the vertical farming company Plenty.

Isaiah Spiegelberg of Laramie fell in love with CEA while working as a technician at UW’s Plant Growth and Phenotyping facility. After earning his undergraduate degree in wildlife and fisheries biology and management in 2022, he continues to work with Guadagno to pursue a master’s degree in botany with a focus on CEA.

Spiegelberg plans to make CEA his career and to work in research and development. He hopes to own a small hydroponic farm someday.

“With growing climate concerns, developing a skilled workforce in CEA and advancing CEA technology is important for long-term food security,” he says. “Opportunities in CEA are also important for diversifying Wyoming’s economy.”