.The town will now be able to grow fresh produce from a shipping container.

Ford Heights native Derek Drake runs a hydroponic farm company called Ditto Foods. He can make a 320 square foot trailer as productive as a three-acre farm.

A team of Morgan State University graduate engineering students recently gained acceptance into the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program to accelerate the development of their technological innovation, AgroVision—a modular hydroponic system designed to transform sustainable food production.

In Langley, B.C., Easy Harvest Box is redefining farming by cultivating gourmet mushrooms in AI-powered, climate-controlled containers.

Using 95% less water and zero pesticides, this startup’s “farm-in-a-box” model could make sustainable, year-round agriculture possible anywhere—from city lots to northern communities.

Luya Tech Inc., a Princeton-based artificial intelligence technology company, announced the launch of what it describes as the world’s first AI-powered microgreens nutrition system at CES 2026.

The system is designed to enable households to grow fresh microgreens at home with minimal effort while focusing on nutritional outcomes.

Southwest Wisconsin Technical College is launching a new initiative that places hydroponic indoor farms in 22 K–12 school districts across its five-county region. The project officially kicked off during an event Aug. 13 on Southwest Tech’s campus. Each school district will receive a state-of-the-art indoor vertical farming tower from Fork Farms, valued at $5,000.

The farms were funded, in part, with a grant from Cummins. Southwest Tech provided funding for the remaining farms. In addition, Rockwell Automation is supporting the project’s technological and automation components.

At Fork Farms, we believe everyone deserves access to fresh, nutritious food, no matter their zip code. As a planet-and-people-first company, we’re building a future where food is grown locally, sustainably, and equitably. Our hydroponic growing systems – the Flex Farm and Flex Acre – enable schools, hospitals, nonprofits, and businesses to grow food on-site with 98 percent less water and land than traditional farming. They’re compact, efficient, and built for controlled-environment agriculture, making it possible to grow fresh produce year-round, anywhere.

As we grow our company and continue to innovate on our systems and mission, we are utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) not as a novelty, but as a critical tool to scale impact, remove barriers, and democratize access to fresh food.

On Saturday morning, a hydroponic farm was launched at Africville Lookoff Park to provide the immigrant and African Nova Scotian communities access to culturally relevant food.

The project, co-founded by Dr. Simone Le Gendre and Chukwuku Orji under EduHaus Inc., is called the Roots and Harvest Africville Farm Project. It was initiated when Feed Nova Scotia announced its Shipping Containers Community Pitch Project — which called for pitches from community organizations working to promote food justice. 

The co-founders participated in the contest and won two shipping containers. They then converted the containers into an AI-powered hydroponic farm with the help of several partners, including Halifax Regional Municipality.