Fresh Faces in CEA Spaces: Meg Burritt
November 6, 2024 In our 2024 Fresh Faces in CEA Spaces series, we’re talking to young professionals in CEA about their work and where they see the industry going in the future. CEAg World recently chatted with Meg Burritt, a research and teaching assistant and doctoral student at Michigan State University.
CEAg World: Can you tell us about your journey into the CEA industry?
Meg Burritt
Meg Burritt: “I recently came back to school – I started pursuing my Ph.D. in January at MSU. I’m in the horticulture department, studying the economics side of controlled environment agriculture. I went to Business School a little over a decade ago at Presidio Graduate School.
“I went to Presidio because I wanted to study sustainable business. At the time I was working in the food industry on the hospitality side of things. And I was able to use my business degree to pivot to working more in the background and directly with growers.
“My first job out of business school was as a produce buyer in San Francisco. My undergraduate degree is from Stanford University. I graduated in 2003 and I have a degree in human biology because, but I did take a circuitous route to get back to this.”
CEAg World: What is your official title?
Meg Burritt: “I’m a research assistant and teaching assistant, and I am the instructor of record for Horticulture Marketing. That’s what I’m teaching this semester. Simone Valle de Souza, Ph.D., is my advisor and our research is collaborative.
“I’m very honored to be able to teach this course for her, and it’s been such a joy. I like meeting all of the horticulture students, hearing their business ideas, and really digging into how to make these types of businesses a successful part of our food system. That’s precisely the thing that I’m passionate about and why I’m so excited to be back in school.”
CEAg World: So, you originally started school with an economics focus. What steered you towards the CEA industry?
Meg Burritt: “For years I worked more on the traditional agriculture side, primarily with a lot of organic growers for a large portion of my career. And then I worked with retailers. I worked for a grocery chain for about five years and worked for Blue Apron on the merchandise and supply chain strategy sides.
“In those roles I was interacting directly with growers/suppliers that were our partners, and I got to know their challenges and opportunities… Opportunities that maybe weren’t being as pursued for those growers from a buyer’s perspective, which is an interesting economic lens as well.
“When I moved to Detroit, I met the founder of Planted Detroit serendipitously. I was very curious to learn more about CEA because while I had purchased produce from some greenhouse growers and had been following the rise of indoor farming, I really was more familiar with the food insecurity perspective and urban farming. I wanted to get involved in the food sovereignty movement, which is very strong in Detroit as well.
“When I joined the team at Planted Detroit, I got to know CEA and learned how critical it is. There are these very specific economic problems that are making it difficult for CEA growers to contribute to today’s food system, which by no means should mean that we divert from it, right? It just needs more focus and research.
“Planted has some wonderful academic partners like Dr. Valle De Souza and the OptimIA team, which is USDA-funded. Working with OptimIA while at Planted Detroit, it was wonderful to have some of those conversations around what makes a CEA company successful and viable in the short and medium term, but overall, the company needs the industry to be successful. So, how can we work together across industry without that nagging challenge of competition?
“You can’t share as openly across CEA companies because often you’re negotiating for the same fundraising from the same investors. So, there’s a lot of cards held close to the chest around intellectual property.”
Worker harvesting lettuce at Planted Detroit. | Photo: Meg Burritt
CEAg World: What are your plans for when you finish your time at Michigan State?
Meg Burritt: “That’s a great question and it changes all the time. I absolutely thought I would go back into the industry because I loved working there and leading a company is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I truly enjoyed doing that at Planted Detroit.
“But I sincerely love teaching, so I think I may end up staying in academia if I get the opportunity. Michigan State is a wonderful ag school. The research is so new and cutting edge, and people come to us with good questions. That’s really what I’m looking for in my career path – how can I find the most complicated question? We get to tease out the answer over time, and academia is such a wonderful community where we get to do that every day.”
CEAg World: What do you expect to see developed in CEA in the future?
Meg Burritt: “I think we will see more value-added products until we figure out the financials around making CEA businesses more profitable. I also think there will be a lot more integration of different types of CEA within the same organizations.
“I hear a lot of growers talking about balancing both vertical farming and greenhouse production so that you can capture sunlight and not have to pay for energy during certain times of the year. That’s really the Achilles heel of CEA. It’s not in the winter where everyone is dealing with paying for supplemental lighting. It’s in the spring and summer where everyone gets the sun for free and we’re still having to pay for each of those photons.
“I think it will be interesting to see where people balance both crop selection and how you take it to market with that value added approach and the different types of cultivation methods, because after all, CEA is an umbrella. Once you have some of those understandings within a company’s ethos around controlling the environment, you can apply them in in those different contexts effectively.”
Editor’s Note: If you’re a CEA grower looking for an industry partner in academia, Meg Burritt is interested in working with you. You can contact her directly at burritt2@msu.edu.