Key Takeaways
- The Resource Innovation Institute (RII) identified a gap in the U.S. controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry: no centralized certification program existed for the trades workforce designing, building, and maintaining greenhouse facilities.
- Rob Eddy spent nearly a year developing an online course aimed at non-horticulturists — contractors, equipment vendors, designers, and builders — to give them a foundational understanding of crop science and how their work impacts plant health.
- The program was trialed by summer interns and a full-time engineer at Arco Murray, one of the country's largest design-build firms, who provided 20–30 pages of feedback that shaped the final curriculum.
- Industry partners, including Vertical Harvest, pushed for food safety content to be placed at the very beginning of the course — a change Eddy adopted immediately.
- The course is hosted on The Ohio State University's Canvas platform through the Ohio Controlled Environment Agricultural Center (OHCEAC), lending the program institutional infrastructure and credibility.
Filling the Trades Gap in Controlled Environment Agriculture
When Rob Eddy joined the Resource Innovation Institute (RII) about three and a half years ago, he brought with him decades of hands-on greenhouse experience — from managing over 25 greenhouse rooms and 70 growth chambers at Purdue University, to consulting for biotech, hydroponics, and cannabis firms. His focus at RII has been education, and his most recent project addresses a workforce gap that, according to Eddy, the industry had largely overlooked.
Rob Eddy's Path to RII
Eddy holds a bachelor's and master's degree in horticulture from Purdue University. His career began in vocational training at the Richmond State Hospital in Indiana, where he ran a greenhouse staffed entirely by patients and individuals from group homes. He later worked as a horticulturist for what is now Corteva Agrisciences, before spending 20 years managing Purdue University's horticulture facilities. After leaving Purdue, he began consulting and volunteering with RII's working groups before accepting a full-time position.
At Resource Innovation Institute, Eddy has led working groups on topics including water circularity, controls and automation, and AI and advanced robotics. These groups bring together equipment vendors, academics, government officials, and utilities to produce industry-informed best practices guides, which are co-authored by academics and funded by agencies including the USDA and the Department of Energy. RII has also been part of the CEA Accelerator Project, partnering with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
