Here at Noon International over the past few years we’ve been struggling to obtain 8×40 foot ocean shipping containers to get your orders to you, yet there are others who have happily been using retrofitted shipping containers for indoor farming and new business ventures.
Indoor farming is nothing new. Hydroponics (the no-soil method of growing products in water that is rich in nutrients) and vertical farming methods (using grow lamps) gives just about anyone the opportunity to try their hand at it without the need to have any fertile land. But the use of retrofitted containers for this purpose is relatively new and has become extremely popular. The cost to do so depends on how much money you must invest in the operation. Here are a few companies making headway in the use of ocean containers for inland farming.
Square Roots, a commercial farming company opened its fourth facility of shipping container farms in Wisconsin this year. “The company says the collection of containers are capable of producing a couple million packages of plants – leafy greens like lettuce and herbs, per year.”
Freight Farmsis a Boston company that turns shipping containers into farms for their clients “who want to feed a small community or run a business. As a measure of growth, in just ten years it has gone from a kickstarter campaign “to growing food for Google’s office lunches.
Freight Farms wants to appeal to a variety of customers from experienced growers to those just starting out. The CEO, Rick Vanzura, estimates that 80% of the company’s customers have no previous agricultural experience. As they say: “We’re on a mission to empower anyone to grow food anywhere.
The Greenery S System
Freight Farms has a new offering called Greenery S that is a system that packs growing shelves vertically into 8×40 ft shipping containers. It is controlled by a companion app called “Farmland” that lets growers monitor data that is collected by sensors inside the container. The grower can access all data remotely and tweak temperature, humidity, lighting and CO2 levels from their home or phone. “Users can tap sliders to adjust light and water controls and monitor camera feeds to keep an eye on things inside the sealed and stable environment. If something goes awry with the conditions around the plants, the app will send a notification about what’s amiss.”
But here’s where the money comes in. A system like Greenery S costs about $149,000 and the Farmland app is $2,400 per year. There may be a few other additional costs such as the energy needed for powering lights and water pumps but overall, it’s a LOT cheaper than buying land to grow crops in most places.
If you don’t have room for an 8×40 ft shipping container at home, try home growing units from companies like Gardyn,Aerogardens, and a Black Magic Grow Pail. They’re not cost prohibitive and are small enough to fit on your table or one of your walls. Many also use computer intelligence for lighting and feeding as well as mobile apps if you are traveling. Other app-enabled home systems are Click & Growand Lettuce Grow Farmstand.
Technology has always played an important part in big agriculture and farming and continues now to enhance the ability of smaller businesses to engage and grow in the inland farming phenomena.
