Vertical Farming: Thinking Inside The Box

2023

By  Jim Patrico, Progressive Farmer Senior Editor

Editor's Note: Vertical farming -- growing crops under a controlled environment -- offers high productivity within a small space. A handful of companies operate large commercial greenhouses, hydroponic systems, etc. But increasing concerns about food security and nutrition offer opportunities on a smaller scale at the farm level. This is one example.

Laura Kelly and Terrin Ricehill farm in a sometimes-purple world.

Inside their shipping container farm, in West Des Moines, Iowa, thousands of red and blue LED lights create a purple glow as they shine on a series of 7-foot-tall vertical panels draped with growing plants. Depending on the plants' growth stage and requirements, the lights can be controlled so that only the red diodes glow -- or only the blue. Farm-management software determines which diodes are on and which are off to provide optimum growing conditions. Sometimes, it turns off all the lights to simulate night.

But, all day and all night, the 40 x 8 x 9.5-foot Freight Farm hums with other cutting-edge technologies, some of which originated with NASA research on growing food in harsh environments and outer space. The plants are automatically fed nutrient formulas according to their needs. Temperatures and humidity are kept at ideal levels. Fans circulate air to moderate the atmosphere.

As they enter their farm's self-contained environment today, Kelly and Ricehill tend crops of basil, Red Russian kale, a mix of lettuces, rosemary and oregano. The business partners harvest weekly and sell the products to a supermarket chain, restaurants and retail customers under the brand name 515 Farms.

In the special series "The Future of Food," DTN is looking at food insecurity but also some of the future trends, crops farmers plan to grow, technology they'll use and even new ways to grow their crops and process their animals more efficiently.

In today's story, the seventh in the series, we take a closer look at vertical farming that allows food to be grown on a smaller scale.

INSIDE THE BOX

Ricehill, who is the farm's manager, rhapsodizes about the technological wonders of the box: "the future of farming."

The world outside 515 Farms is changing. Climate disruptions bring more frequent droughts. Heat waves and diminished water supplies threaten current food production, especially in areas like Arizona and California, which grow most of the country's leafy crops. Transportation costs are rising. Labor supplies have constricted. Populations expand, and land availability shrinks.

HOW TO FEED THE FUTURE?

Thinking innovatively about food production has become imperative. On a large scale, traditional farmers and equipment manufacturers during the last decade have pioneered advancements ranging from herbicide applicators powered by artificial intelligence to autonomous tractors. And improved plant genetics have raised yield expectations. Production and efficiency have grown exponentially as a result.

On a smaller scale, technologies for growing food indoors also have exploded in recent years. Costco, for instance, advertises it buys some of its organic vegetables from a 600,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic farm in California. And, just outside many cities, large greenhouses have sprung up to produce local products that don't have to be shipped from farms 1,000 miles away.

In this new farming world, shipping container farms are a viable alternative for growing food locally.

The concept has been around for more than a decade and is rapidly evolving, said Caroline Katsiroubas, a spokesperson for Freight Farms. The Boston-based company in 2011 was one of the first manufacturers to combine so many indoor growing technologies in a shipping container, which is delivered to a customer as a nearly turnkey farm. Today, Freight Farms has placed more than 500 containers both in the U.S. and overseas. It's been successful, and at least a half-dozen competitors have introduced their own farm-in-a-box products.

Technology is advancing quickly. Freight Farms now sells farm-management software called "farmhand," which monitors farming systems and gives owners the ability to control them remotely. The company is now on its third generation of container farms. Its first generation, Leafy Green Machine, went through six iterations before giving way to the Greenery and now the Greenery S.

Lead photo: Farm owner Laura Kelly and manager Terrin Ricehill inspect kale growing on vertical towers. (DTN/Progressive Farmer by Jim Patrico)