‘Coolest Thing Made in Colorado’ This year? A Shipping Container Farm
October 24, 2025
Inside a Vertical Hydroponic Farm by FarmBox Foods. (Courtesy photo, FarmBox Foods)
A company specializing in vertical farming was awarded the “2025 Coolest Thing Made in Colorado” by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.
The statewide business lobbying group celebrated the top inventions of the state for the past four years with this recognition aiming to highlight different locally-made products.
This year’s winner was the Vertical Hydroponic Farm made by FarmBox Foods out of Aurora.
The company has patented vertical farming technology that it implements inside of old shipping containers, turning the cargo boxes into mini climate-controlled farms. It allows for the growth of mushrooms, leafy greens and herbs. And these products can be farmed 365 days a year and anywhere in the world.
And as shipping containers are originally built for, they can easily be transported and stacked on top of each other.
“FarmBox Foods is doing remarkable work to transform the future of farming while helping feed communities around the world,” said Colorado Chamber President and CEO Loren Furman in a press release. “They are a powerful example of how Colorado’s manufacturing sector is driving innovation that has a global impact.”
The company has been growing fast since it made its first prototype in 2018, said FarmBox Foods CEO Rusty Walker.
They’re projected to hit $8 million to $10 million in sales by the end of the year, he told The Denver Gazette. The company has sent out 80 shipping container farms out into the world, so far.
A FarmBox Foods shipping container. (Courtesy photo, FarmBox Foods)
A FarmBox Foods shipping container. (Courtesy photo, FarmBox Foods)
FarmBox Foods has seen a range of customers interested in their products, including grocery stores, hospitals, schools, NASA and federal prisons.
The shipping container farm is working on a pilot program with a correctional facility in Orlando, Fla. to build a curriculum for inmates to learn the basics of hydroponic farming, Walker said. Hydroponic farming is a form of growing plants without soil but with a water-based nutrient solution, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
The program could expand to almost every federal prison in the U.S., he said.
“We are in discussions with them so that looks like that’s a greenlight for us and we’re pretty excited about it,” Walker said.
Winning the Coolest Thing Made in Colorado award was one of the top highlights of Walker’s career, he said.
When he first saw one of the shipping container farms from founders Tony English and Jake Savageau, Walker said the idea looked like it would be a game changer.
“This isn’t your traditional farm… you can put it on a flatbed truck and move it 1,000 miles away and then unhook it and take a garden hose and you’ve just moved 2.5 acres of farm land and you can’t do that with traditional farming,” he said.
Leaders of FarmBox Foods awarded the Coolest Thing Made in Colorado by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. (Courtesy of FarmBox Foods)
Last year’s winner was Golden’s Freedom Trax, which manufactures motorized off-road attachments for wheelchairs to go in different terrains such as sand, snow, trails, cobblestone and more.
The chamber named 10 finalists for the award including an all-electric travel trailer, a soil contaminant cleaner, a self-driving tractor, a satellite that can capture pictures at a resolution usually only planes and drones could have taken before, a laser maze challenge and a handheld device that can cool body temperature.
This year’s runner-up was AIEye by HapWare. The company makes glasses in Golden with the ability to help translate nonverbal communication cues to people who are vision-impaired or autistic.
The camera inside of the glasses can detect facial expressions, gestures and body language and can send vibrational signals to a wristband that connects to the glasses.