As growers face challenges from limited land, unstable climate conditions, labor pressure, and the need for a stable food supply, container farms are becoming a practical option for modern agriculture. Aurlant has developed a series of container farm solutions designed to help growers produce crops in controlled environments with more flexible space use and year-round operation.

Fork Farms has partnered with more than 5,000 institutions across 50 states and 22 countries. Together, those partners can grow nearly 2 million pounds of fresh food annually, and many are growing food for under $1 per pound. This matters because it means local food production can be practical, measurable, and economically competitive.

Fifth-grade students at Madison Elementary are digging into science and sustainability through a year-long indoor gardening and composting STEM project that allows them to grow their own food from start to finish.

Designed for classroom learning, the EdRack Hydroponic System allows students to explore plant science, sustainability, food production, and technology through interactive, project-based experiences.

Students can follow crops from planting to harvest while developing skills in science, mathematics, and critical thinking.

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.

At Brookville Elementary, the freshest lettuce isn’t grown in a garden bed—it’s grown indoors, without even touching soil.

This innovative approach is thanks to a grant written by Kain Kennemuth, a second-year science teacher, who brought a fully functioning hydroponics system, called the Flex Farm, to the classroom.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of Controlled Environment Agriculture operations in the United States more than doubled between 2009 and 2019, from 1,476 to 2,994. As Aliu began to research the motivations behind this growth, he found that the discourse around CEAs was theoretical or promotional in nature–an unhelpful “agricultural techsplaining” approach to an increasingly consequential method in the food system. 

“There was a clear and urgent need for real-world, holistic data, and that was the inspiration for my dissertation,” he says. “I saw the opportunity to, at the very least, foreground and perhaps trailblaze situational and operational approaches to system sustainability in this rapidly evolving sector.”