December 3, 2020

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. -- Students at a Douglas County high school are learning COVID-era business skills using a freight container converted into a high-tech hydroponic vertical farm as their virtual classroom.

After Mountain Vista High School recently switched to remote learning, students and teachers had to completely reorganize the farm's workflows and lesson plans.

David Larsen, agriculture business teacher and farms manager at Mountain Vista High School, said while some students may go on to pursue biology or horticulture, skills learned during the pandemic should transfer to any field.

"Most of these kids are not going to actually be farmers," Larsen admitted. "But they all will have jobs in which they have to troubleshoot, scheduling, logistics, it all comes into play. And the goal I always have with students is to, as much as possible, involve them in that decision-making."

With kids unable to be physically inside the farm to seed, plant, tend, harvest, package and sell crops, Larsen live streams, and records every lesson.

Supply-chain disruption during the pandemic drove up sales, and Larsen saw an opportunity for a business lesson in supply and demand. Crops typically sold during two-day markets have been selling out within two to three hours.

Larsen noted the Greenery unit created by Massachusetts-based company Freight Farms is resistant to pandemics, but also extreme weather and drought.

The unit uses nearly 99% less water than a traditional farm, running on less than the average dishwasher uses.

While most food consumed in the U.S. travels hundreds or even thousands of miles, Larsen observed the Mountain Vista operation is as close to zero food-production miles as you can get.

"So we are literally harvesting and putting into bags as the customer is standing right there," Larsen explained. "So they are living plants. People love lettuce; it's definitely delicious and very clean."

Larsen added students still are able to interact with local shoppers via live video streaming, learning important customer-service lessons.

Because the climate is controlled inside the container, Larsen said food can be grown all school year long with a predictable commercial-scale output.

A Greenery unit can support 13,000 plants at a time, producing harvests of up to 900 heads of lettuce per week.

Lead photo: Crops produced by students at Mountain Vista High School in Douglas County usually are sold during two-day market sales, but post-COVID, customer volume has shot up, selling out within two to three hours. (Mountain Vista High School)

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