Today, we salute Navy Veteran Brad Fourby. Brad had a dream and moved nearly 2000 miles away from Sacramento to Pittsburg, Kansas, to make the dream come true. 

That dream is “Leafy Green Farms.” Using his military training helped keep Brad methodical in his approach to his dream, saying, “I knew I didn’t need to win the war today; I just needed to survive the battle.”

He planted his first seed on July 4, 2021. What he created inside a shipping container was vertical rows of produce in a hydroponic growing environment that now serves area food deserts as well as 10 different farm classrooms and school districts to inspire future farmers.

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.

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.

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.”

Pittsburg High School is on a mission to get its students to be more health-conscious about their meal choices.

The idea is so important that they decided to have a hydroponic container farm on school grounds.

A Freight Farm is not your traditional farm; it's a cutting-edge, self-contained ecosystem housed within a repurposed shipping container. Inside these compact and versatile structures, we harness the power of hydroponics and vertical farming to grow fresh, nutritious produce year-round, regardless of climate or location. From leafy greens and herbs to fruits and vegetables, Freight Farms empowers individuals, communities, and businesses to cultivate a sustainable future while minimizing environmental impact.

Down a narrow path in the middle of Governors Island sits an 8-foot-by-40-foot shipping container on the grass. Inside, you won’t find cargo that belongs in a retail warehouse or cars fresh from the factory. Nope, this container holds something potentially far more valuable: The future of urban farming.

Step inside and you’ll find a series of parallel movable walls—almost as if they’re hung on curtain rods—with columns of floor-to-ceiling sponges. Tucked into the sponges are shoots of kale sprouting every few inches.

“This is part of our commitment to creating the clean energy future,” says Bill Fairechio, a department manager in Con Edison’s Research and Development department.

Hydroponically grown plants are lining the shelves at Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, thanks to a new partnership between the food pantry and a Castine-based nonprofit hydroponic farm called the Good Table Foundation.

Hydroponic plants are grown without soil. At the Good Table Foundation, they are grown in a 40-foot shipping container on a rotational basis, so the produce can be harvested and delivered to Loaves and Fishes each week throughout the year.

In this insightful webinar, learn how Morgan Hill Unified School District (MHUSD) is revolutionizing its agriculture program by integrating two Freight Farms into its curriculum.

Led by Freight Farms' Event Manager and MHUSD's Director of Student Nutrition & Records Retention, along with their Lead Farmer, discover how these vertical hydroponic farms are enhancing hands-on learning, providing fresh, year-round produce, and teaching students practical skills that connect them to food, sustainability, and the future of farming.

Step inside the world of sustainable agriculture and explore Hammock Greens' innovative, eco-friendly, hyperlocal farm nestled in the heart of Overtown—one of the University of Miami's providers of fresh greens for its dining halls.

USD 235 was the recipient of a hydroponic shipping container farm through a grant awarded to the Kansas Division of Children and Families, USD 235 Superintendent Vance Eden said in a prior interview.

Hydrophonics is Coming to a Local School System

The Community Green Farms of Pittsburg, KS announced on September 11, 2023, that they would receive over $1,000,000 to bring seven southeast Kansas counties a vertical hydroponic container farm.

A research project centers around understanding energy consumption of indoor farming
Each week, a shipping container farm in Citra sends lettuce to the University of Florida in Gainesville
This produce helps stock the on-campus food pantry, which is open to the entire UF community, from students to teachers
Pantry coordinator Lori Benson says, “It’s healthy. Produce is probably what students want the most”

“You don’t have to be missing food or struggling to come here. This is an opportunity for everyone, and it shows stuff like this is important for a community,” she said.

Morgan Hill Unified School District's hydroponic lettuce grown in shipping containers.

A public radio station program focusing on agriculture in the United States, has turned its focus on two local enterprises in Morgan Hill.

The first nationally broadcast agriculture series of its kind, “America’s Heartland” is back for its 18th season with 10 new episodes featuring crops grown on locally owned farms.

CWC received $366,000 from WIP to “lay the groundwork” for the local CEA program, Page said – a process that included infrastructure development, course development, and the purchase of a hydroponic container farm that should be delivered in the coming weeks from a Boston-based company called Freight Farms.

Page called the freight farm “the biggest and most exciting part of this.”

Mid-Ohio Food Collective celebrated the opening of its technology-rich "smart farm" in the Hilltop on Tuesday, though it's already been producing fresh food for several months.

Everything grown at the seven-acre farm on Wheatland Avenue goes to Mid-Ohio’s food banks and markets. CEO Matt Habash said the farm came from the idea that MOFC had to do things differently to keep up with a growing need.

The site also has a futuristic LED-light year-round mobile growing center housed in a repurposed shipping container.

Inside California Education is a television series produced by PBS KVIE that shares compelling stories about California’s public education system. The series focuses on the challenges, opportunities, and successes of public schools.

Stories range from early education to K-12 to community colleges and include topics such as special education, school funding, arts, STEM, educator training, student health, and much more. It also profiles teachers, school staff, education leaders, and others who are making a difference in the lives of California’s six million public school students.

University of Florida officials will gather in Citra to celebrate and tour PSREU’s first “smart garden,” a 320-square-foot agricultural pod outfitted to grow fruits and vegetables hydroponically.

“It’s essentially a shipping container similar to one used to ship goods from Asia or Europe to the United States,” said James Boyer, PSREU director of research administration.

Ying Zhang, UF/IFAS assistant professor of controlled environments, is leading a team of researchers studying indoor agriculture techniques by growing lettuce inside the pod. The team marked its first harvest earlier this month.

The programs and facilities include the “Freight Farm” where hydroponic gardens grow a variety of food inside donated shipping containers equivalent to 4 acres of farmland. It includes the Emerging Farmers Institute, offering intensive virtual coursework on the fundamentals of farming, while also including sessions aimed at tackling the most commonly faced mental stressors of working in agriculture.

James Sprunt Community College is raising the bar on “smart farming” by implementing a Smart Farm Hydroponics Growing Container equipped with cutting-edge technology marrying food production and education.  More than just growing plants, we are growing the ways we improve our students, our communities, and our local economy.

Recently, the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission (NCTTFC) provided Four County Electric Membership Corporation (FCEMC) and JSCC with funding to purchase a hydroponic smart farm container. The Smart Farm is located at the JSCC WestPark Center in Warsaw.

Brittany Weerts and Ali Jewell traveled to Boston last week for a 2-day intensive training for the new Freight Farm container farms at the Purdue Student Farm. While there, they met with Nathan Liberty – Freight Farm’s growing manager and also a former HLA graduate.