Cai Diggs

I envision the future of agriculture as sustainable and efficient. Sustainability in agriculture is protecting the health of the environment while ensuring enough food is produced to feed populations. Some examples of sustainable agricultural practices are utilizing cover crops and implementing crop rotations. This is necessary to ensure the longevity of agriculture, as having suitable media to grow a large number of crops is fundamental for food security as the human population increases. 

Efficiency as it relates to agriculture is the optimization of resources for maximum crop yield. Some examples of efficient agricultural practices include vertical farming (space-use efficiency) and hydroponics (water-use efficiency). Agricultural efficiency is important because we want to make sure that resources are being used in the most suitable way so that nothing is being wasted. Efficiency is also important because it maximizes the outputs and minimizes inputs. This is necessary as we see resources being depleted with an increasing human population. I see myself contributing to the future of agriculture by implementing sustainable food systems in urban areas. This can include aquaponics, vertical farms, etc. Working in agriculture abroad is something that appeals to me because I hope to become more worldly as a sustainable professional. Overall, I hope to see what agriculture looks like across the world. 

A picture I took of the parameters of the water quality in the aquaponics lab.