In an old tobacco barn in North Carolina, Craig Watts completed three trial runs growing shiitakes before he felt ready to scale up. Then, he pulled a shipping container into one of the four giant barns that have been sitting empty on his farm and connected plumbing and electrical systems that once provided water and lighting for thousands of chickens destined to become Perdue products.

Farmer Chris Pacheco prides himself on growing food and feeding people, but at his farm there are no green fields or hoop houses cultivated with rows of vegetables. Instead, his growhouses are climate-controlled, commercial shipping containers where he produces about 1,000 pounds of mushrooms per week that are sold across the state at farmers markets and restaurants.

The concept of farming in a specially designed indoor farm inside a well-designed and equipped shipping container has gained significant traction among agricultural entrepreneurs or "farmtrepreneurs" across the United States.

Our mission is simple yet profound: to provide our community with access to the freshest, most nutritious mushrooms possible, all while minimizing our carbon footprint and supporting local food systems. And we're proud to say that we're doing just that, one mushroom at a time.

In early December 2023, a 40-foot by 8-foot container was delivered to Northern Illinois University (NIU) behind Anderson Hall. While resembling a standard shipping container, the unit houses a complete hydroponic farming system

A year after starting her microgreens business, she purchased a crop box, a modified and automated shipping container, and set it up in her backyard. One person running the shipping container five days a week for three to four hours a day produces three tons of microgreens annually, she says

Despite Colorado’s cold winter weather, two shipping containers at Uller’s Garden sprout vertical panels of lettuce, arugula and basil. Equal to five acres of land and using 95% less water, the hydroponic system feeds the growing rows of plants with essential nutrients from a constantly circulating water system while high efficiency LED lights supply them with all the sunshine they could need

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Bowen Harvest, 500-square-foot hydroponic container farm, will bring free fresh produce to Altgeld Gardens, a food desert. Credit: By The Hand Club For Kids

In a unique, non-traditional farming method of growing farm fodder inside a huge 40-foot long shipping container with automated climate control known as a Hydroponic Fodder Farm, people can harvest a staggering amount of barley grass through FarmBox Foods

Harbor Media spoke with CEO Rick Vanzura about their vertical farming system company

AmplifiedAg, a supplier of indoor farms, equipment, and software, built a multi-tenant software platform, AmpEDGE, that can either be used to manage one- or multiple farms which provides all the environmental and operational information needed to run a farm, from small to enterprise scale

Typically constructed within redundant buildings or warehouse units, vertical farms are becoming an established sector of the farming industry, but what about container farms? In simple terms, a container farm is a vertical farming system that is built inside a shipping container

Horticulture Technicians are all about plant health. Their role records and tracks plant growth, makes sure that the plants receive the right amount of water and nutrients, and to carry out treatment if—or when—a plant shows signs of disease or pest damage. They can work either in outdoor agriculture environments or indoors working with hydroponic production systems or in greenhouses

Inside this shipping container in downtown Ottawa, Dylan Mitchell, a farm operator with Heartee Foods, is growing and harvesting several varieties of gourmet mushrooms

Don Taylor, founder and CEO of AmplifiedAg, shares his inspiration, insights and hopes for his company and the CEA industry. “We formed Vertical Roots really with the intention of operating production-scale farms to understand the complexities that the farmers are facing from an operations perspective.”

Learn more about Gowin Valley Farms and their gourmet mushroom operations

The 4-in-1 Hydroponic Container Farm is great for urban farmers and commercial growers seeking a versatile, efficient, and compact solution to grow a diverse range of produce year-round, maximizing yield and minimizing environmental impact.

A Westfield couple is celebrating a new milestone: harvesting their first batch of blue oyster mushrooms in an upcycled shipping container

Mycro Harvest starts with a shipping container and adds affordable automation alongside AI monitoring to grow mushrooms at scale