VIDEO: Wageningen Start-Up Produces Fresh Vegetables in a Shipping Container in Ukraine

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.’