US - Massachusetts: Hydroponic Farm Grows At Framingham High School
By Zane Razzaq
Daily News staff
October 11, 2019
Via a mobile app, staff can monitor the crops, adjust the pink ultraviolet light, and prompt a light rain without setting foot inside the farm. A webcam even snaps a photo every three minutes, so they can see changes as they happen. If any crop’s reading falls outside of the target range, the app will send a notification.
FRAMINGHAM – In an old shipping container behind the high school, towers of lettuce enjoy springtime.
Walls of kale and other greens stretch down an aisle the length of the trailer, fed by ropes of LED lights that mimic sunlight. A wall-mounted keyboard that serves as the 320-square-foot hydroponic farm’s brain keeps the temperature at a steady 70 degrees. Every hour, a fan clicks on to distribute a spurt of carbon dioxide for a minute, helping the plants grow.
Later in the day, members of the Food Service Department will pluck leafy greens such as red romaine or wasabi arugula from about 35 grow towers. Then, produce is packed in crates and distributed to city schools to feed thousands of students.
“They might never see lettuce like this in their lifetime,” said Brendan Ryan, the foodservice department administrator for Framingham schools, holding up a particularly delicate lettuce. “You would be hard-pressed to buy this lettuce on the open market because it’s so hard to maintain.”
This will be the department’s first full year using the $104,000 product, which was first installed in April. It can grow the equivalent of two acres worth of vegetables inside without soil year-round.
Purchased from Boston-based Freight Farms with money from the department, it’s an example of the urban farming trend that the schools are now embracing. The indoor farm uses the technology of hydroponics: a technique where plants are grown with a nutrient solution and the same water recirculates repeatedly. Soil is not used.
For Ryan and his staff, it’s the latest “marketing tool” to promote the department, which previously started an outdoor garden to grow sunflowers, potatoes, corn and more.
“We’re trying to be as cutting-edge as we can and make sure that we’re serving these kids the best freshest product possible,” said Ryan. “This is one way for parents to see we’re making the lettuce right outside.”
Via a mobile app, staff can monitor the crops, adjust the pink ultraviolet light, and prompt a light rain without setting foot inside the farm. A webcam even snaps a photo every three minutes, so they can see changes as they happen. If any crop’s reading falls outside of the target range, the app will send a notification.
Containers of nutrient-infused water – chock-full of minerals found in healthy soil such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous – pump through tubes to the crops growing in polymer mesh.
Getting the hang of the technology posed some learning curves, said Raquel Vazquez, director of foodservice operations. For example, it takes more than an hour to calibrate the water tank filters to make sure every nutrient is properly dispensed into seedlings.
“If we don’t, then it improperly imbalanced and then our crops won’t yield as well,” said Vazquez.
The inside of the freight container also needs to be kept extremely clean to avoid problems like algae growth.
Ryan likened the “new endeavor” to going from “being a butcher to a brain surgeon.”
A head of lettuce that would normally take 14 to 16 weeks to grow in a field takes about eight weeks inside the trailer, 365 days a year. Another advantage: Crops are not exposed to any contaminants and are “beyond 100% organic,” said Ryan.
And it produces lettuce and other vegetables that would be too expensive for the district to buy from vendors, like the delicate lettuce that outside vendors would likely not risk shipping.
“They’re not going to be taking packed very well, they don’t take the exposure to extreme temperatures very well,” said Ryan, of the fine leaves. “You pack these in a shipping truck, stacked 30, 40 cases high – they flatten. Here, this crate goes right to the school.”
Vazquez said it also poses a learning opportunity for students, saying some have already toured the unit. Eventually, the biology department hopes to incorporate it into the curriculum.
“While our staff serves pizza on Fridays, they’re really teaching them about what hydroponic greens are, where this came from, all the way down to kindergarten. They’re starting to eat it and try it and taste it,” said Vazquez.
Ryan and Vasquez hope the high-tech aspect of the farm will get teens interested in farming as a career.
“A lot of kids think of agriculture as some lone farmer covered in mud in the middle of a field with a tractor. And it’s not anymore,” said Ryan.
Zane Razzaq writes about education. Reach her at 508-626-3919 or zrazzaq@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.