Adrina Farms is a hydroponic farm. They grow in water instead of in soil, 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.

“We're trying to grow as much as we can and as small space as possible,” Jacobs said.

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.

.The town will now be able to grow fresh produce from a shipping container.

Ford Heights native Derek Drake runs a hydroponic farm company called Ditto Foods. He can make a 320 square foot trailer as productive as a three-acre farm.

2024 saw the installation of Freight Farm growing containers at the farm. These metal boxes allow the students to grow vegetables year-round in a controlled environment. This is where most of Sieber’s lettuce is grown.

Prior to the containers, the farm did sell to HTM but the year-round lettuce production has boosted the farm’s ability to sell to the school, Adair said.

Cherry Street Farm and Lab features raised beds, solar panels that power the site, a youth food education "lab" featuring a large kitchen, and an outdoor plaza.

Its centerpiece is a hydroponic trailer that can grow up to two acres of fresh food at a time, using just five to six gallons of water per day.

Launched: January 2025, the Bronx, New York

Goal: Bring year-round local food production and cross-disciplinary, place-based learning to an independent school campus in New York City

Something truly remarkable is happening at Marble Farms. Yes, you read that correctly — there is a farm thriving at 8,000 feet in elevation. Despite growing in one of the harshest climates, Marble Farms is brilliantly cultivating the seeds of change with the help of an unexpected tool: a Freight Farm.

"With rising food prices and controversy surrounding major retail chains, people are really looking for ways to grow locally. On a community level, there is more interest than ever from schools, municipalities and Indigenous communities for local food solutions," says Alida Burke, co-founder and Chief Financial Officer at Growcer, the Ottawa-based container farming company established ten years ago.

Inside the Greater Chicago Food Depository is a new garden of sorts. Fragrant herbs are sprouting from four high-tech hydroponic units. "We grow what the kitchen generally requests," said Mick O'Donnell, the food bank's hydroponic specialist. .

"We grow what the kitchen generally requests," said Mick O'Donnell, the food bank's hydroponic specialist. "Right now, basil and dill are a seasonal product.

The indoor net-zero growing unit produces vegetables, herbs, and microgreens year-round inside a fully converted sea‑can.    

The project aims to operate without negative environmental impacts, using responsible stewardship of energy, water, and soil.  

Students from Grades 7 through 12 are involved in the project, from planting, watering, lighting and harvesting, to marketing, and business operations.   

A partnership between Akoma Holding and EduHaus aims to employ Black Nova Scotians in hydroponic farming.

Inside a converted shipping container in Westphal, N.S., the Akoma Hydroponic Garden is growing fresh basil and teaching young people about horticulture.

Nestled next to the Community of Change Center on Centralia Street in the West End sits an unassuming white freight container.

Inside, the 320-square-foot metal structure houses a drip irrigation hydroponics system that grows 2,500 pounds of produce annually.

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.