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.”

Many new Freight Farmers don’t come from an agricultural background, so learning how to set crop prices is unfamiliar territory. 

Establishing an optimal price point can be challenging. Pricing too high might deter customers, but pricing too low means missing out on potential revenue. How much do your customers value hyper-local produce?

In this guide, we'll help you identify the ideal sales channel, outline the process to establish your pricing, and offer recommendations for moving forward.

"The farm came in a basic format, and we adjusted it to our way of farming that suited our needs best. Since it was able to grow over 900 different crop varieties, I intended to bring the technology, and find what my market needed, no matter how I had to do that," says David Payne, Co-founder of Beats Per Minute, a container farm operator in Kansas City, Missouri.

In the launch of the collaboration between BoomGrow and CelcomDigi at Paragon Mall here today, a machine farm contained within a 45-feet container, was placed just outside the mall.

Digital Minister Gobind Singh said in his speech at the launch.

“I’ve been made to understand that the produce from one container is equivalent to an acre’s supply of an outdoor farm,” he added.

La Colaborativa, a preeminent Latinx-led nonprofit organization focused on empowering Latinx residents and enhancing quality of life, is excited to announce the launch of the youth-centered Freight Farm Urban Agriculture Program. Beginning this community-centered project,

La Colaborativa has deployed the first containerized urban farming unit in Chelsea and the greater region, which will be operated by youth enrolled in La Colaborativa’s workforce training programs.

“As a data-driven, decentralised agritech company in Asia,” he says. “Big factories with high-rise vertical farming racks—we don’t believe that is sustainable. They consume a lot of energy, and the way they transport and pack products is not sustainable and involves a lot of logistics costs. We inspire people to farm rather than farming ourselves. I give you the system and the data, you get more than 150 species to harvest from.”

That takes the form of the company’s Smart Mobile Farms: modular systems that look like a cross between a chiller cabinet and a vending machine, and that contain everything needed to grow herbs and leafy greens.

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.

With population growth and shrinking agricultural land , the search for innovative farming methods has become paramount. Indoor farming, often referred to as “urban,” is emerging as a promising solution.

What are indoor crops?

Indoor growing, also called indoor growing or controlled environment vertical farming , is a method where plants are grown inside enclosed structures such as greenhouses, specially designed buildings, or stacked-floor growing systems.

Waregem, Belgium – Urban Crop Solutions (UCS) has undertaken a project for a client focused on cultivating microalgae in an indoor farming environment. After an extensive search for suitable indoor farming partners, UCS was selected to meet the specific needs of the client. UCS’s slogan, “We build your indoor farm to your specifications,” facilitated the connection for a tailored solution.

Inside, it’s a high-tech farming system. Route 1’s Reithen Curtis manages the system. Work starts with seedlings that eventually get planted vertically in rows within the freight. He runs LED lights that mimic the sunlight 18 hours a day, so plants grow super fast.

Carpenter said they grow 200 pounds of that fresh food every week. It goes into communities through the farmer’s market. It also goes to restaurants, so they can get fresh, local food even in the winter months.

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.

SEPEC Consults provided technical and financial assistance to support the implementation of this project. This partnership helped Burban navigate the challenges associated with installing and operating the hydroponic system. “SEPEC has been a valuable partner. They assisted us in understanding and utilizing the hydroponic system effectively and provided financial support that was crucial for the project’s success,” he noted.

The selection of crops for this new system was made in consultation with SEPEC Consults, considering local market needs. The chosen crops, including parsley, chives, coriander, basil, shiso, kale, Pak Choi, lettuce, and other aromatic plants, aim to meet a growing demand for fresh, high-quality products.

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.

A suspicious fire at the BlackSeed Agroecology Farm & Village on South Whidbey destroyed an estimated $250,000 worth of hydroponic equipment Friday afternoon.

Island County Sheriff Rick Felici said investigators gathered evidence from the scene and sent it to the Washington State Crime Lab to help identify whether any accelerant may have been used to start the fire.

Whether it’s a community garden or fully-dedicated land near a dense, city center, urban farming has surged in popularity in recent years. These farms impact local communities by providing education about climate change, food security, biodiversity, pollinators and nutrition.

Urban agriculture contributes between 15% and 20% of the global food supply, according to the USDA. This can help cities be more equitable because it creates easier access to fresh produce.

Julian Jacobs is the owner of Adrina Farms, which is located in Uptown Charlotte at the Innovation Barn. His farm is a hyperlocal, hydroponic farm where they grow lettuce, leafy green and root vegetables inside a 320-square-foot indoor space.

In partnership with the Deere Foundation, Freight Farms, the city of Rock Island, and the Quad City Botanical Center, Tapestry Farms announces today a significant expansion of our food-growing capabilities for 2024 and beyond.

This morning, a 320-square-foot self-contained hydroponics unit, which can grow between two and six tons of produce annually, arrived from Freight Farms in Boston by semi truck and crane to the parking lot of the Botanical Center. This container will give our organization the opportunity to double, or possibly triple, the amount of produce we can grow each year, said Ann McGlynn, executive director of Tapestry Farms.

Farmers across the U.S. are ditching industrial livestock farms for more sustainable and healthier vegetable farms, per a report by the Guardian. 

Thanks to Transformation, an organization dedicated to helping farmers leave poultry farming and begin vegetable farming, farmers now have the resources and knowledge to make the sustainable switch. 

On top of providing farmers with technical support, Transformation also gives grants ranging between $10,000 and $20,000 to farmers transitioning away from poultry farming. 

"We're constructing fully autonomous farms alongside manual farms across Japan and Southeast Asia. Our goal is to stay at the forefront of vertical farming innovations, which is why we have a co-research farm based in Osaka, collaborating with the local university on the most current research," says Hernan Ocampos, the Section Head of the Food Tech Department at Espec Mic Corp.

Espec Mic has been involved in horticulture and vertical farming since 1988, Espec Mic and has expanded its expertise to include climate chambers, greenhouses, vertical farms, hydroponics, nurseries, growing cabinets, and urban greening solutions.