Simon English
Breakthrough Program Participant
My name is Simon English and I’m a PhD candidate in forest and conservation science at the Univesity of British Columbia. I also work as a statical ecologist and data analyst in Ottawa and I have a master’s degree in system biology from the University of Toronto.
While I remain involved in research, through my work as a contractor and in my PhD, I’m here to talk about a project that I’m working on that I believe has the potential to revolutionize modern agriculture. Conventional agriculture practices are at the heart of humanity’s biggest challenges and they’re economically, environmentally, and socially unsustainable.
The project I’m working on is called Controlled Environment Soybean Agriculture (CESA). This approach to cultivating soybeans leverages leading-edge technology vertical-agriculture and greenhouse systems to maximize land use efficiency while minimizing and eliminating water use and agrochemical input.