Assessing barriers to use of reclaimed wastewater for food production in controlled environment agriculture.

The long term goal of our team is to develop practical and safe alternatives to potable water sources for sustainable food production. The goal of this project is to identify barriers to the use of reclaimed wastewater for food crop production with respect to crop growth, contaminant uptake, and public and farmer acceptance of reuse. Our experimental approach takes into account the various growth systems and common greenhouse grown crops. Our social science approach takes into account both sides of the reuse equation to understand on the one hand, what drives or impedes farmers' use of reclaimed water and on the other hand, what drives or impedes consumers' acceptance of food grown with reuse irrigation. While our context for this research is greenhouse crop production, aspects of our experimental plan allows for the translation to wastewater irrigated crops in fields. We expect to identify growth conditions and impediments to reuse among both the public and farmers and translate those research outputs to inform both agricultural extension strategies to help ameliorate barriers to reuse and future research directions. To achieve these goals, our specific objectives are:Objective 1: Assess plant growth and accumulation of selected disinfection byproducts in commonly grown greenhouse crops irrigated with reclaimed wastewater.Objective 2: Identify factors that drive or impede acceptance of use of reclaimed wastewater for food production by growers and consumers.Objective 3: Develop agricultural extension education programs to inform growers about wastewater reuse and help reduce barriers to use.Objective 4: Educate middle and high school teachers on wastewater reuse and concerns in greenhouse agriculture.