Taco Tuesdays at Illinois State University are about to get fresher as a new Vertical Farm prepares to grow cilantro for dining services.
The farm, which officially launched Thursday, will operate out of a converted shipping container outside ISU’s Office of Sustainability on School Street. The 320-square-foot unit is equipped with a hydroponic system and LED lighting to grow the equivalent of 1-2 acres of traditional field production with a fraction of the water required to cultivate up to 4,600 plants.
In a ribbon-cutting ceremony, College of Applied Science and Technology Dean Chad McEvoy said the Vertical Farm is an ideal example of experiential learning for ISU students.
“Learning opportunities such as these prepare students to make a difference in their field—and yes, that’s an agriculture pun—and contribute to our society,” said McEvoy.
McEvoy said up to 100 students will be able to work in the Vertical Farm, growing and harvesting up to 50 pounds of cilantro per week.
“In addition, fewer chemicals are necessary to ensure the vitality of the plants, and no pesticides are needed in the controlled space,” he said.
The $200,000 project, launched with support from the Illinois Farm Bureau, will has taken more than 6 years for the initiative to go from idea to reality. ISU President Aondover Tarhule was provost when the process began.
“That’s significant to me for a number of reasons,” said Tarhule. “It has taken a long time.”
Todd McLoda, then dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology [CAST], approached Tarhule with the idea in 2019 based on a proposal from agriculture students supervised by professor David Kopsell.
“And unfortunately, we all know what happened in the spring of 2020,” said Kopsell.
The students’ presentation to Kopsell was one of his first pandemic Zoom meetings. And there was much shuffling in the offices of decision makers. In July, McLoda will become associate provost after an appointment as interim dean in the College of Education. Tarhule became president. And Ani Yazedjian is now the provost.
“But the idea survived,” said Tarhule. “Good ideas survive.”
Following the ceremony, which was moved inside to the Bone Student Center, Kopsell gave tours of the facility to 10 people at a time. There’s a small workstation to plant seedlings under grow lights and sanitation station. A majority of the shipping container holds vertical towers for plants to mature, kept healthy through a gravity-fed water system. Outside the farm, a grassy area will soon be landscaped with an eco-friendlier clover lawn as a pilot for other areas of campus.
Kopsell originally wanted to grow all different crops in their energy-efficient, indoor farm. They’re starting with cilantro on request from ISU dining services—much to provost Yazedjian’s delight.
“I’m excited to see the impact the facility will have, not only on our campus, but also on the broader agricultural and sustainable communities,” she said. “I look forward to seeing the great work and tasting some of that cilantro.”
