Controlled Environment Agriculture: Potential for the Future of Food

Prof. Dr. Thomas Wilke:

        »CEA can provide food regardless of climate and location—with significantly higher productivity, lower water and land requirements, and new opportunities for sustainable food security..«

The Perspective published in PNAS Nexus highlights the future potential of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) as a building block for resilient and resource-efficient food security. The focus is on a novel, quantitative evaluation framework that compares the theoretical performance of six CEA systems—ranging from plants to algae and fungi to insects, fish, and cultured meat—with conventional field production. The authors demonstrate that, under ideal conditions, CEA can enable enormous gains in yield, protein production, and water and land efficiency.
At the same time, the study makes it clear that the widespread adoption of CEA is still hindered by high energy requirements and significant costs. Therefore, the question of how energy efficiency, the circular utilization of by-products, and renewable energy sources can be better integrated in the future is particularly relevant. For Fraunhofer IME, the publication is also noteworthy because three of the institute’s key scientific leaders—department heads Prof. Andreas Vilcinskas, Prof. Holger Zorn, and Prof. Thomas Wilke—were involved as co-authors. The Perspective thus underscores IME’s interdisciplinary expertise at the intersection of bioresources, sustainability, and technological transformation.