When it comes to making the most of small spaces, owners of tiny homes would be impressed with what Illinois State University (ISU) can do with its modified shipping container farm.

In its new 320-square-foot vertical farm, ISU will be able to produce as many herbs annually as it could in 2 to 4 acres in an outdoor field.

It all started in 2019 when a group of ISU students in the Innovative Consulting Community (ICC) approached horticulture professor David Kopsell about growing a garden for their entrepreneurial project. He explained how hard that would be during an academic school year and offered another alternative — a Freight Farm container hydroponic system.

“I had heard about Freight Farm since 2013 when some of my colleagues started talking about them,” said Kopsell. Through much collaboration, that idea germinated and grew to the point it will be ready to start growing leafy greens this summer.”

The University of Evansville in Indiana is launching We Grow Aces!, a new initiative that brings together education, sustainability, and community engagement to provide access to extraordinary experiential learning, while addressing food insecurity and workforce development.

The program, funded through the Eli Lilly Endowment's Indiana Youth Programs on Campus grant, will make possible the purchase of a Pure Produce Container, a vertical garden system jointly developed by anu and eko Solutions, housed in an up-cycled shipping container capable of producing 3,920 plants per 40-day cycle, or several tons of vegetables annually.

Funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title III STEM grant, the FarmBox is a repurposed refrigerator container equipped with full-spectrum LED lighting, seedling trays, and moveable grow walls that can hold 3,888 plants. This system can produce as much as 2.5 to 3 acres of crops annually, harvesting 684 plants weekly while using only 3 to 5 gallons of water daily.

“The FarmBox uses programmable logic (PLC) to operate lights, pumps, timers, valves, and other equipment to grow the product,” said George O’Clair, MCC Electromechanical Technology Faculty. “The Electrical Mechanical Technology (ELMT) students study PLCs to operate those items. The FarmBox will be beneficial to the class to see an operating PLC in action.”

We are thrilled to announce a new agriculture project that will bring hands-on, sustainable learning to our students! In partnership with The Growcer, a Canadian agritech company specializing in year-round modular farms, we will be deploying a hydroponic farm at Prairie River Junior High School.

This innovative, climate-controlled system will allow students to grow food in all seasons, ensuring a consistent supply of fresh, nutritious produce for our community. In addition to gaining valuable knowledge about food security and agricultural technology, students will develop critical skills in teamwork, responsibility, and environmental stewardship.