By Mark Peterson

Jan. 18, 2022

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - This is the day we pause to remember the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

And this just happens to be the year that Otho Farrow’s dream is being lived.

“The opportunity for African Americans and people of color to re-enter the farming market, this gives you that opportunity,” Farrow said from the 40-foot-long indoor farm housed inside a shipping container. “Because it’s a low capital investment, you know, you can buy, I bought this basically for around $60,000 used.”

Farrow says the 40-foot shipping container can produce up to three acres worth of leafy greens per year.

The container is parked on the factory floor of the old Sibley Machine building in South Bend, where the rain falls for six minutes every hour before it is recycled, and nutrients and light are carefully controlled.

So much for the notion that farming is hard work. Farrow says he puts in about 25 hours per week.

Farrow is a 1988 graduate of Niles High School who spent 15 years living in New York City. He’s now back to farm in the Midwest, growing nutrient-rich leafy greens—because he can, and because he feels he must. “Everyone is still talking about COVID, and COVID is a definite problem but as we know, at least as we’ve heard, some of the underlying health issues are the real killers in combination with COVID, diabetes, heart health issues,” Farrow said. Too many of our people in the community are dying from things that are entirely preventable by a good diet.”

Farrow has developed a relationship with Purdue Polytechnic High School in South Bend. Last week about 20 of the students toured the facility. “You get the kids ‘introduced to it early, and it becomes a lifestyle that they that they’ll take with them.”

The first harvest at Metropolis Greens is expected in early February. By April, crops will be harvested at a rate of once a week.

It’s hoped that the products will be sold to restaurants, hospitals, and facilities with incarcerated populations.