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.

ComEd showed off cool agriculture pods Monday which showcase indoor farming inside of shipping containers.

The shipping containers are set up with LED lighting, high-efficiency HVAC systems for fresh air and pumps to recirculate water.

It’s part of a national study to understand how utility companies can plan for indoor agriculture.

Corey Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Growcer in Ottawa, Ontario, is one of three finalists in the Innovator category of the CEAg World Impact Awards. The Innovator Award recognizes an entrepreneur or leader who has pioneered and implemented a new tool, concept, or practice that has significant implications for CEA. This award recipient will be someone who has used their expertise to drive tangible improvements for growers, enhancing productivity, sustainability, and overall farm success.

Learn more about Ellis below, and watch CEAgWorld.com for more profiles of our finalists.

At AdventHealth, that idea is becoming reality. By integrating locally grown produce into patient care, they’re proving that access to fresh food can heal both people and communities.

Freight Farms is proud to help make it possible, with technology that brings food production on-site, ensuring healthcare systems can nourish patients sustainably, reliably, and year-round.

Because when hospitals grow food, they grow health. Join us for a free 30-minute webinar: Fueling the Food as Medicine Movement.

On October 10, 2025, Corey Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Growcer and Dave Harris, head of Freight Farmer Success at Growcer, chatted about support options available for Freight Farmers and answered your questions.

Ottawa, ON — Freight Farms, a pioneer in containerized farming technology, has found a new home with Growcer, the Canadian agritech company that has been enabling year-round, hyper-local food production across North America for more than a decade.

The acquisition follows Freight Farms’ bankruptcy filing in April 2025, which left its global community of farmers facing uncertainty about the future of their operations. On July 28, Growcer acquired the company’s assets, committing to preserve Freight Farms’ legacy while charting a stronger future for its growers.

One in four Canadians — more than 10 million people — are struggling to put food on the table, according to a new RBC report published in June.

This is the highest level ever recorded in this country, driven by rising costs and limited access to affordable food.

In Ottawa, a new initiative at The Ottawa Mission shows how community collaborations can make a difference in combatting this important issue.

With two new modular vertical farms built in partnership with local ag-tech company Growcer, and with support from RBC Foundation through the Ottawa Community Foundation’s Food Resilience Foundation Fund, the shelter is now producing up to 20,000 pounds of fresh greens annually.

Canadian vertical farming company Growcer has announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Growtainers, the U.S.-based container farming firm founded by Glenn Behrman.

The announcement comes shortly after Growcer's acquisition of Freight Farms' assets in July, a move that brought more than 500 growers worldwide under its support network.

Growcer CEO Corey Ellis shared the news in a detailed LinkedIn post, framing the alliance as a way to combine strengths while setting realistic expectations for the industry.

What happens when a Boys & Girls Club starts container farming? In Boston Metro South, two Freight Farms hydroponic container farms are doing far more than just growing food.

They are creating hands-on learning opportunities for kids, engaging community volunteers, attracting major donors, and supporting local nonprofits.

Discover how these farms became teaching tools, hands-on labs for youth programs, and a powerful way to bring the community together.

Discover how Broadview Federal Credit Union is transforming food security in Albany, NY through sustainable container farming!

Since 2018, Broadview has invested in four Freight Farms hydroponic container farms and donated three of them to local nonprofit organizations.

This initiative is helping fight food insecurity, provide hands-on farming education for kids, and improve community health outcomes. Learn how container farming makes fresh, healthy produce accessible year-round and supports local nonprofits in building a more sustainable future.

Oxbow High School is in the process of setting up a hydroponic farm built inside a modular container that will serve as an educational tool for students year-round.

Stony Brook University in New York donated the structure, which was designed by Boston-based company Freight Farms, to Oxbow last fall. An average Leafy Green Machine unit costs about $76,000. 

Oxbow staff learned about Stony Brook’s plan to part ways with the Freight Farm through a facilities person at the college who is a relative of a staff member at Oxbow. The high school “seized the opportunity” to acquire the farm, Oxbow Principal Ken Cadow said via email.

Oxbow’s Freight Farm will be located behind the school’s library and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) lab, which opened last fall.

Even with vertical farming’s recent struggles, the Freight Farms’ bankruptcy announcement in April 2025 came as a shock. The company, founded in 2011, had been one of the first to commercialize container farming, selling turnkey hydroponic farms housed in retrofitted shipping containers.

It had grown to serve more than 600 customers in all 50 U.S. states and was developing a widespread presence around the world. The day after the bankruptcy announcement, Freight Farms growers were informed via email that they no longer had access to tech support, core software platforms, farm supplies, or replacement parts.

Through partnerships with Growcer, food banks, and community farms, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is positioning vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) as a strategic solution to climate, skills, and food access challenges.

When The Ottawa Mission, the city's oldest homeless shelter, recently installed two modular vertical farms, it became more than a food relief effort. The project, a partnership between the shelter, agtech firm Growcer, and the Royal Bank of Canada, represented a collaboration that merges philanthropy with infrastructure building.

Ottawa-based modular farming startup now has over 600 new customers from 30 different countries on its plate.

Container-based vertical farming company Freight Farms declared bankruptcy in April after 13 years of operation. Three months later, Ottawa-based Growcer CEO Corey Ellis won a bidding battle in a Boston courthouse to acquire the assets of Freight, his company’s American competitor. 

The $2.6-million USD (about $3.6 million CAD) purchase suddenly adds a lot more than container-grown leafy greens to Growcer’s plate. The startup now has about 600 new customers (including municipalities, food banks, and other community food organizations) and farm containers across 30 different countries, as well as use of Freight’s proprietary software.

With food costs top of mind for many charities, Ottawa company Growcer is partnering with the Ottawa Mission to set up an urban vertical farm to provide fresh leafy greens to the charity’s food program. 

With the goal of addressing food insecurity across Canada, Growcer builds hydroponic modular farms and food storage solutions, which were originally designed for remote communities with harsh weather conditions, said Corey Ellis, CEO and co-founder. 

“We’ve got about 120 (vertical farms) across the country and only one in Ottawa to date,” Ellis told OBJ on Tuesday. 

Last week, Ottawa, Canada–based vertical farming company Growcer announced it had won the bid to acquire the assets of Freight Farms, a US–based company offering a similar type of container-based vertical farm.

Freight Farms ceased operations on April 30 after a period of financial strain that included layoffs and a scrapped merger.

Support and service for existing Freight Farms customers also ended at that time, which the team at Growcer immediately took note of.

“These people have made really large investments into controlled environment agriculture, and they were looking for someone to carry the torch, to offer support, software, parts, and all the things that they need to continue their operations,” Growcer cofounder and CEO Corey Ellis tells AgFunderNews.

Update: We've won the bid to acquire Freight Farms' assets.

A few months ago, one of our top competitors filed for bankruptcy, and the Growcer team sprang into action to help their community of farmers keep growing.

One of the options we explored was throwing our hat into the ring to purchase substantially all of the company's assets (such as an inventory of complete farms, spare parts, software, all intellectual property, and subscriptions etc.). We rallied a group of key partners, and I'm thrilled to say that we were able to make it happen.

The Ottawa Mission is using technology combined with farming to feed thousands.

The new initiative uses indoor “vertical farms” to grown healthy, fresh locally produced greens for use in the Mission’s meal programs to serve vulnerable community.

Growcer, RBC and the Ottawa Mission launched the initiative at Bayview Yards Thursday morning.

“I think it’s going to provide us very close to what we need in terms of the meals,” Peter Tilley, Ottawa Mission CEO, said.

“We’re doing over a million meals a year. This will provide us with close to the lettuce, green, leafy product that we need for those meals. Of course, we’ll still have to buy other items or produce at the usual market prices.”