(Lander, WY) – Students in a freshman year agriculture class at Lander Valley High School harvested over 30 pounds of lettuce this week after growing it entirely inside their classroom.

The greens were delivered to the cafeteria and served in school lunches for teachers and students the following day.

The school’s child nutrition team recently started experimenting with two vertical hydroponic growing systems.

"It started as like kind of a pipe dream idea over the summer," said the school's child nutrition coordinator, Megan Grippa. "We had someone from Fork Farms, where we purchased our hydroponic farms from, speak at my conference and I heard a little bit of her speech and was kind of inspired."

Michigan State University researchers are developing more financial resources to help controlled environment growers succeed.

Horticulture economics doctoral student Megan Burritt tells Brownfield, “Everybody is considering, as you’re trying to grow your agricultural commodity entity, should I buy a new tractor or should I invest in a new greenhouse?”

A new pilot study suggests that engaging in indoor hydroponic gardening can improve mental well-being and quality of life for adults undergoing cancer treatment.

The findings indicate that this accessible form of nature-based intervention offers a practical strategy for reducing depression and boosting emotional functioning in patients.

Green Our Planet, the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of school garden and hydroponics STEM programs announced a major national partnership with Fork Farms today, the Wisconsin-based impact-tech company redefining indoor agriculture. Together, the two organizations will expand access to hydroponic laboratories and hands-on STEM learning for students across the United States.

Penn State Extension will offer a five-week webinar series titled Basics of Hydroponic Production every Wednesday from February 18 through March 18, 2026, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. EST. This lunchtime series is designed to introduce participants to the core principles of growing vegetables without soil. Key topics include hydroponic systems, lighting, climate control, nutrient and water quality management, insect and disease management, microgreens, and food safety.

A recycled shipping container now serves as a mini-ecosystem, teaching kids about aquaponics — a system of aquaculture which involves raising both plants and fish together. The fish provide nutrients to the plants, and the plants provide clean water for the fish.

Kaben Smallwood, CEO of Symbiotic Aquatics and the designer of the exhibit, says the process allows farmers to take their minds off their tools and keep them on their products.

In 2016, Growcer installed its first modular, vertical farm in Churchill, Man., where food security can be precarious. Growcer’s team trained the local community how to operate and maintain the hydroponic farm that is housed inside what looks like a shipping container where plants grow on stacked shelves under LED lights.

Within weeks, the community saw the cost of vegetables plummet by 50 percent simply because the locally grown produce replaced leafy imports.

At Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School, students are learning science beyond the textbook by growing plants indoors through a student-led hydroponic program, JR MANRRS Club, or Jr. Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences Club, which also gives back to the community.

The soil-free growing system allows students to cultivate vegetables using water, light and carefully monitored nutrients.

Aquaponics in Action Exhibit Brings Sustainable Food Systems Education to Families

As part of MAD’s commitment to community engagement and workforce development, Southern Miss, Symbiotic LLC, the GULF BLUE Initiative and LMDC have partnered to create a public aquaponics education exhibit housed in a retrofitted shipping container.

Summer Street is an organization supporting people with diverse abilities and is participant led. This project to start growing local food was years in the making with goals to:
1) Grow fresh local food to eat
2) Create meaningful employment
3) Grow food to give back to the community

Buckeye Local Jr./Sr. High School is taking the term “farm to table” to new heights by establishing its own sustainable venture to supply freshly grown produce through its new hydroponics system.

The BLHS FFA and junior high building are housing three commercial-grade hydroponics towers that were acquired in November with a $35,000 Grow Ohio Grant from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

Kimbal Musk's journey encompasses school gardens, vertical farms in shipping containers, and educational projects that advocate for local cultivation, healthy consumption, and agriculture as a tool for continuous social transformation.

While Elon Musk dominates global debates about technology and transportation, his younger brother, Kimbal Musk, follows a different path because he sees food as a way to have a direct social impact.

Objective: To reduce Barbados' 85% dependence on imported food, create a new generation of climate-resilient farmers, and provide a consistent, high-quality local produce supply that is protected from extreme weather events.

The installation uses modular, containerized vertical farms (three units total: two for production, one for nursery/support) equipped with aeroponic systems and energy-efficient LED lighting.

Escalante Middle School students are running a warm and flourishing hydroponic indoor oasis for their hand-grown plants and herbs this winter – and their bounty is stocking the school cafeteria and shelves at Durango Natural Foods.

The state recently awarded the Watertown Schools a grant to run its farm-to-school program, including its Freight Farm.

Watertown Public Schools has received more than $80,000 in state grant funding to continue its farm-to-school efforts, expanding learning opportunities for Watertown’s students while also increasing local food production.

Shipping containers are popping up across Harlem in ways that go far beyond their industrial past.

They’re growing food, cleaning up streets, inspiring urban design, and reshaping how Harlem thinks about space and sustainability. Here is how used containers in New York are repurposed for a new life in Harlem.

“We anticipate that smart vertical farming will play a significant future role in our winter food supply using big warehouses for cities like Winnipeg and shipping containers for smaller Northern communities,” says Cha.

With vertical farms, producers accelerate plant growth at night to take advantage of lower electricity rates outside of peak hours.