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Section Symposium

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Formal and Informal Teaching

Empowering Tomorrow’s Food Systems with Controlled Environment Agriculture

Challenges and opportunities for pest management in controlled environment agriculture in the U.S. and its importance for global food systems

Tuesday, November 12, 2024
9:05 AM – 9:25 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 126 C, PCC
Oral Presentation
In the state of Ohio, we have seen increased interest in the production of food in controlled environments. While this represents a unique perspective, it touches upon several important aspects of pest management that may be useful in other systems in different parts of the world. For instance, research on specialty crops grown in controlled environments can lead to the discovery of options that can be applied in the field and in other cropping systems. For example, our research on pests of oyster mushrooms and vegetables helped us develop molecular techniques to confirm their identification. In mushrooms we found high fungus gnat preferences for the oyster mushroom Pleurotus columbinus, which impacts the development of control strategies. We also evaluated biological control agents and biopesticides in various cropping systems. Increased knowledge about the use of biological control agents, and biopesticides on ornamentals, vegetables and even on hemps systems would be critical to de development of appropriate Integrated Pest Management programs and to the development of food production in controlled environments and in the field.