The simple answer to the question posed in the title of this article is, "it depends." Many years ago, my children teased that the domain name for my consulting practice should be "itdepends.com" because that is how I answer every question. However, in this case, there is no simple answer. The questions about the safety of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) are complicated. This article outlines why CEA safety depends on understanding and properly addressing the challenges of combining agricultural and ready-to-eat (RTE) into a single facility. It also addresses why CEA is not inherently safe. Ultimately, this article will show how the risk profile of CEA must be compared to that of other RTE produce and that there is no universal answer to the question of CEA safety.

CEA is the flavor of the moment for investors and technocrats who believe they have a better way to produce food. It is asserted to be safer, more sustainable, more controlled, free of pesticides, local, fresher, have a lower carbon footprint, and more. Many of these claims have some basis, but they are broad generalizations that are not uniformly true. This article does not address all of these claims. Instead, it focuses on the food safety aspects of CEA, which is still a complex matter. To aid the reader, this article is divided into discussions of the following questions: