Land Betterment, a Certified B Corp. focused on innovative environmental solutions is pleased to announce that ekō Solutions' commercial partner, anu™ (Heliponix LLC), an ag-tech innovator, has been awarded a $175,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The company is potentially eligible for a $600,000 Phase II SBIR from USDA NIFA. ekō Solutions is a Land Betterment portfolio company.

Purdue University alumni Scott Massey and Ivan Ball co-founded anu, which has received financial support from the Purdue Research Foundation.

According to a staff member from the organizer of the competition, 90 percent of the young participants expressed their intention to pursue a career in agriculture in the future.

Li Shenghui, (a pseudonym), hailing from a rural background, had never dabbled in farming nor shown any inclination towards growing vegetables. Yet, drawing inspiration from his parents' toil in the fields nurturing crops like corn, tomatoes, and leafy greens, he crafted algorithms and applied them to grow lettuce in a shipping container. His dream is to bring this innovative technology back to his hometown, with the aim of benefiting the local community.

Yang Hao, a doctoral student at China Agricultural University, shared his joy and pride in planting lettuce for the first time. Yang, with a diverse academic background, has been deeply involved in lettuce cultivation for eight years.

This spring, two shipping containers designed to be vertical farms were delivered to Purdue University to offer students, staff, faculty and the community to learn and experiment with new horticulture and agricultural practices.

"The student farm is all about offering our students experiences in many different angles to production. So, the Overbeck Controlled Environment Agriculture Facility project was a great fit. We are excited to educate our students how to operate a container farm. With many students excited by new technology, we have seen great interest in these container farms and the learning opportunities they can provide."

For millennia, humanity has depended on photosynthesis to cultivate crops and feed a growing population. However, the escalating challenges of climate change and global hunger now compel us to surpass the efficiency limitations of photosynthesis. Here, we propose the adoption of an electro-agriculture (electro-ag) framework that combines CO2 electrolysis with biological systems to enhance food production efficiency.

Adopting a food system based entirely on electro-ag could reduce United States agricultural land use by 88%, freeing nearly half of the country’s land for ecosystem restoration and natural carbon sequestration. Electro-ag bypasses traditional photosynthesis, enabling food cultivation in non-arable urban centers, arid deserts, and even outer space environments.

BoomGrow is an urban farm that utilises technology and data to cultivate crops in repurposed shipping containers stacked with modular plant racks. This controlled environment ensures the greens are packed with flavour, freshness, and nutrition, delivered straight from farm to fork.

Jay Desan started her urban farm when she realised how expensive buying fresh produce at local supermarkets can be. (BoomGrow pic)

“It isn’t a case of ‘plant and pray’ that something grows. Our farm controls water, light, and humidity with precision, ensuring consistent, fresh produce year-round,” Jay explained.

Indeed, BoomGrow takes “fresh from the farm” to a whole new level. According to Jay, their produce isn’t just local – it’s “hyperlocal”.

La Salle Bajío University launched a vertical hydroponic farm in collaboration with Verde Compacto to foster education in sustainable agriculture.

The Huvster container farm, a 30-square-meter space, can produce 200 times more vegetables per square meter than traditional farming with 90% less water.

The facility will serve as a research and education center for students, providing hands-on experience with sustainable agriculture technologies.

The farm produces around 100 lb of fresh vegetables weekly, supporting the university and local farm-to-table initiatives.

Saratoga County has a new farm serving up fresh produce, and it’s growing inside of a high-tech shipping container.

The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce said that Foothills Farm, located in Greenfield, New York, is unlike any other farm in the area. Founders Max and Nikki Poritzky are proud of this new endeavor.

“We grow in a contained environment, indoors, and we grow vertically, so we grow on walls basically,” Max Poritzky said.

The farm produces lettuce varieties, leafy greens and culinary herbs, which are supplied to several local restaurants as well as the Skidmore College dining hall.

A new hydroponic freight farm opened in Chelsea on Saturday, providing fresh produce year-round.  The urban farm was launched by GreenRoots, a local environmental organization. 

Roseann Bongiovanni, executive director of GreenRoots Teaching Kitchen, said the farm's hydroponic technology will let the organization grow produce year-round. “It’s a sort of urban farm-to-table concept to address food insecurity, nutrition, health, and also to build community and culture,” Bongiovanni said. 

On the outside, the farm just looks like a storage container in a parking lot. But inside the container, water and artificial light and heat create an environment for plants to grow no matter the weather outside. 

As our population grows, we're going to need a lot more farms to feed the planet. Yet, in a lot of places, farming is almost impossible. And much of the land we can use for farming is disappearing.

With so many farms on land, could we build farms vertically to save space? Maybe it’s time to grow ... up?

Where do we need vertical farms?

What would it take to build them?

How could they help to save the planet?

“We are excited to have new technology on campus so our students can learn about these alternative high-tech farming practices,” says President of Central Wyoming College. “It is cutting edge and has major implications for substantially increasing food production in small spaces, and for bringing fresh foods to food deserts that have little or no access to these healthy and fresh food options.”

CWC’s AAS Degree in Regenerative Small Scale Farming is the first of its kind in Wyoming. Central Wyoming College also offers a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Organizational Management and Leadership with an option in Agricultural Leadership. 

The total healthcare spend relating to poor diet is quickly approaching $4 trillion annually according to the American Heart Association. This doesn't even include lost worker productivity.  One of the key contributing factors to that is access to healthy foods. Scott Massey, founder and CEO of Anu, is an entrepreneur that unites the power of technology and health to bring a new category of innovation to agbioscience. He joins us to talk the access gap to nutrition in our country and Anu’s approach to nutrition – right at the point of consumption. 

Tijmen Blok and Jort Maarseveen decided to launch their own start-up after graduation. Together, they designed and built the Hippotainer, a vertical farm in a shipping container. Their first Hippotainer is now churning out hundreds of heads of lettuce per week in war-torn Ukraine.

Jort Maarseveen (26) studied Biobased Sciences in Wageningen, where his interest in vertical farming was sparked. Tijmen Blok (26), who studied Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management, shared his enthusiasm. Together, they sought small-scale applications of vertical farming. Their quest was not a straightforward one, Blok recounts. ‘Our initial experiments used polystyrene with holes and a pond pump for water circulation. After a while, all our plants perished. The lighting had elevated the temperature to over 40 degrees Celsius.’

Freight Farms’ Greenery™ integrated several advanced systems to create an optimal growing environment:

1. Hydroponics: Plants are grown in a nutrient-rich, water-based system that recirculates water, reducing waste and maximizing resource efficiency.

2. LED Lighting: Adjustable LED lights simulate natural sunlight, providing plants with the ideal light spectrum for growth.

3. Climate Control: Advanced sensors regulate temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels, ensuring stable conditions year-round.

4. Automation and Sensors: Integrated automation monitors and adjusts farm conditions in real-time, reducing manual labor and optimizing farm performance.

Lander, Wyo. — Central Wyoming College’s Freight Farm arrived yesterday at the Lander Center.  The 40-foot shipping container is a fully automated hydroponic, year-round growing system, and is capable of producing two to four acres of produce a year. 

“This will enhance the Central Wyoming College student experience,” says Ethan Page, Instructor of Local Food and Agriculture. “We will now be able to eliminate seasonal and logistical barriers and grow food at the Lander Center 365 days a year.  We operate a student farm and a farm incubator program at the Alpine Science Institute in Sinks Canyon  We will now be able to offer fresh veggies at local farmers’ markets throughout the year.”

This 40-foot shipping container grows lettuce hydroponically, giving our students hands-on experience with agricultural technology that shapes the future of farming; it's a living classroom where students learn about sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship, and the importance of regenerative farming.

By integrating this farm into our school campus, we’re fostering a deeper connection between students and nature while addressing food security in an urban setting.

A special thank you to Orange County Supervisor Doug Chaffee for his generous financial support, the AUHSD Board of Trustees, and AUHSD Business Services for overseeing the construction with dedication.

Together, we’re cultivating change—one seed, one student, and one meal at a time.

Located on a former brownfield site, the farm turned to CEA technologies like vertical farming, container growing, and hydroponics to bypass poor soil quality and limited space issues. "Our motto is, 'Make every acre count,'" Trevor explains. Using over 300 vertical towers, the farm can produce thousands of heads of lettuce in a single cycle.

Educational greenhouses and hydroponic systems
MOFC's success lies in using hydroponic systems and greenhouse technologies. High tunnels—polyplastic-wrapped structures provided by the USDA—protect crops from unpredictable weather, while Dutch bucket systems optimize the production of crops like tomatoes, with each bucket yielding 35 to 50 pounds. By integrating hydroponics, the farm circumvents the need for long-term soil regeneration, a process that can take up to 10 years on previously developed land.

Growing food without soil has been increasingly popular nationwide in recent years.

Hydroponics is the technique of growing plants using water as a nutrient solution and a growing medium instead of soil. Sustainable production methods like hydroponics and aquaponics can help produce food in various ways, including year-round production, increased space efficiency, and decreased waste while using up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture.

It isn’t new for the Brookings community to start experiencing places like South Dakota State University’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES) and SoDak Greens.

"With our containers, we're able to meet some of the challenges that traditional farming has struggled with," Cammack said.

Cammack says the climate-controlled containers use 95% less water than traditional farming and are more energy efficient. They can grow food year-round, in harsh climates, and urban environments.

"It only takes up about five parking spaces to land one of these containers, so you can land these in the middle of a city and be growing 2.5 acres annually right there behind a restaurant," Cammack said.

The container farm-to-table concept also eliminates the food loss and the environmental toll of supply chain food transport.

Farmbox sells the containers to restaurants, schools, grocery chains, health care systems, farmers, ranchers and wholesalers.

Once completed, the OLCP will feature 28 repurposed shipping containers offering a diverse range of spaces, including local vendor stalls, a hydroponic farm, art installations, and event venues.

Located at the intersection of Pacific and Tennessee Avenues, the park is poised to complement and enhance the growing Orange Loop district.

In addition to retail and agricultural spaces, the park will include rooftop seating, educational areas, and live performance stages.

The developers envision the OLCP as a new cornerstone of Atlantic City, set to generate jobs, attract visitors, and infuse the area with a fresh, vibrant energy.

The farmers haven’t stopped growing — or experimenting. Demler’s latest project is culinary mushrooms. He and his team of five produce 50 to 60 pounds of mushrooms a week.

“We had no clue where this was going to go,” Demler said. “We had no idea what was going to come, and I like to think that hopefully, we still don’t know what’s to come yet.”

The program recently launched a shipping container farm, added edible landscaping to its fair displays and partnered with a Texas A&M AgriLife facility for outdoor growing.

On top of feeding the community, Big Tex Urban Farms is also an educational hub. It just finished its second year with a cohort of local high schoolers. The class spends six months training in urban farming and hydroponics.