Inside a shipping container in downtown Raleigh, there is no soil, rain or sunshine. At Nanue Farms, lettuce grows vertically under LED lights. Water mixed with nutrients drips through panels to the plants’ roots, drains into a holding tank and circulates through the system again.

While the lettuce-driven cyclospora outbreak has generally been bad for businesses across the nation—including some St. Louis chefs who’ve been forced to take extra precautions—the outbreak has come with an upside for one St. Louis-area startup.

Adrina Farms is a hydroponic farm. They grow in water instead of in soil, and then nutrients get added to the plant in a controlled environment. It’s right in the middle of the City of Charlotte at Innovation Barn, and they grow lettuce vertically.

In Charlotte, an indoor vertical farm at the Innovation Barn is positioning itself as an alternative to traditional outdoor growing by moving lettuce production into shipping containers and using a controlled, water-powered system designed to limit outside exposure.