Freight farms are vertical farms built inside of repurposed shipping containers. They utilize hydroponic farming, in which plants are grown without soil and instead grow inside water-based solutions. The farms can be placed virtually anywhere and grow year-round because of their self-contained climate. The result is a high-yield farm that requires far less space than a traditional garden.

Two container farms on the grounds of Volunteers of America's Upstate New York campus have become a working part of how the organization addresses food insecurity among its clients. Running for two years, the programme supplies leafy greens, beans, root vegetables, and herbs to on-site shelters, a children's centre, and partner organizations in the surrounding community.

In addition to the community gardens, Dr. Bennington is overseeing plans for a hydroponic shipping container farm, first announced in November 2025. The container farm is slated to be located adjacent to the Wellness Center, near the new garden space.

If you drove by the weed-strewn lot in West Aliquippa, you might not give a second thought to the two white shipping containers there. Or if you did, you might think: Storage facilities? Meth labs, maybe?

In Boston Metro South, the local Boys & Girls Club has brought community members, kids and families, big-name donors, and nonprofit leadership together around a container farming program.

Just a few miles from our Hamilton office sits an unexpected hub of innovation: a fully operational hydroponic farm tucked inside a refurbished shipping container at the Robbinsville Municipal Complex.

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.

The freight container is not just a teaching tool but also provides fresh produce for students around the district.

Known as a Freight Farm, the container is filled with walls outfitted with equipment to water and nourish hundreds of plants, and lights to help them grow.

Back in June, the school received a new freight farm, which is a converted shipping container made to grow plants.

It was made possible through the Massachusetts FRESH Grant from Mass. Farm to School, and since then, the garden has been thriving.

Businesses are transforming rooftops, courtyards, parking lots, and unused land into working farms, growing their own food to reduce reliance on suppliers and serve fresher meals.

At the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, guests are often eating produce grown just steps from where they’re staying.

Farmer-in-residence Leslie Wilber oversees the hotel’s on-site farm, where a wide variety of crops are grown throughout the year.

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.

Hofstra University unveiled plans to install a Freight Farms Greenery™ S hydroponic container farm on its North Campus as part of the University’s ongoing “Pride Farm” sustainability initiatives. The container farm is supported by New York State Senator Siela A. Bynoe.

Hello! My name is Kenzie Sandusky, and I’m a senior+ studying horticulture, (production and marketing ) at Purdue University! During my time at the container farms, I have several tasks to oversee in order to ensure a plentiful harvest for the CSA!

Through the opening of Peace Produce at William Peace University, Pacer Dining is now serving lettuce grown right on campus.

Peace Produce, the campus’s new hydroponic farm, launched on Sept. 5 with a celebration that included samples of the farm’s fresh lettuce.

“The salads were served with two unique salad dressings prepared by Chef James Pelli,” Pacer Dining Marketing Coordinator Alex Strickler said.

A new kind of farm has sprouted at Cal Poly Pomona — one that grows upward and indoors. 

The first-ever vertical farming facility on campus is housed in a high-tech container built by Freight Farms that was donated to CPP through a partnership with the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Southern California Edison (SCE). The project brings hands-on research and sustainable food production together in one compact, climate-controlled system. 

Inside the freight farms are grow walls and nursery stations that used to grow only romaine lettuce, but have now expanded to radishes, carrots, and even strawberries. Each shipping container is equivalent to around three acres of farm land.

The freight farms give cohort participants a job as they help with the maintenance and harvest of produce each week. They get paid $15 per hour for up to 20 hours per week for each hour spent helping at the farm and in the classroom.

Leaders with Northern Illinois University and ComEd are celebrating the successes of a program helping students better understand the future of agriculture.

Two years ago, NIU started its Edible Campus program as a way to fight food insecurity and teach students about agriculture. Leaders say a successful part of that program has been its “Hydropod” vertical farming system.

A farm experiment yields a harvest through the winter, and it is in the middle of Lawndale.

An empty lot in North Lawndale is host to a micro farm, more specifically, an agricultural pod inside a metal container. The produce grows vertically and hydroponically where light and temperature are controlled year-round.