News About Farming in Shipping Containers & Limited Indoor Spaces
“The System Adds Intangible Value, Turning Sustainability Into a Business Strategy and a Market Advantage”
"Clients use our farms to integrate a sustainable food supply chain directly into their business models," says Juan Gabriel Succar, Co-Founder of Mexican container farming company, Verde Compacto. The company's 40-foot container farm, the Huvster Pro, is being adopted by stadiums, resorts, universities, and municipalities, and is shipped fully equipped, with digital monitoring, remote support, and optional service extensions.
Succar says the system is designed to meet more than just production targets, offering a certifiable, financeable path to vertical farming for customers prioritizing year-round supply, sustainability indicators, and on-site visibility.
YMCA Celebrates First Freight Farm Anniversary With Lettuce Giveaway
The Haverhill YMCA is hosting a harvest party to celebrate the second anniversary of its Freight Factory hydroponic farm at the city’s Gateway Academy.
The party is Wednesday, Oct. 2, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Gateway Academy, 415 Primrose St., Haverhill. Participants are invited to tour the garden and pick their own lettuce.
The indoor container garden is called a “freight farm” because it is set up inside a 40-by-8-foot shipping container painted on the sides in bright colors with the message “The Y Feeds Kids.” As WHAV reported when it opened in October 2023, it was heralded at the first farm of its kind operated by a YMCA in country.
Hippotainer on Wageningen Campus: Growing Food Anywhere
Jort Maarseveen and Tijmen Blok started as two WUR students who believed that everyone should have access to fresh nutritious food anywhere in the world and ended up with Hippotainer.
Hippotainer’s mission is to design and implement smart vertical farms inside shipping containers to enable people anywhere in the world to access fresh vegetables. “We enable food production anywhere on the globe, regardless of the location, whether it's on the North Pole or in the Sahara Desert, we want to be able to make it possible to produce fresh vegetables”
The concept of Hippotainer began while cofounders Jort Maarseveen and Tijmen Blok were doing their Masters at WUR with backgrounds in biology, business, and biosciences.
AmplifiedAg Advances SC & CA Corrections Vertical Farm Partnerships
Agriculture technology leader, AmplifiedAg, continues to lead the way in vertical farming in the corrections industry. The company has made advancements in two significant partnerships with the South Carolina Department of Corrections and Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, in collaboration with reentry program partner Impact Justice and its Growing Justice initiative, and CEA advisor Skout Strategy.
Merging sustainable, local food access with job training and reentry programming, these projects set a new precedent for how correctional systems can cultivate healthier communities on both sides of the fence while positively impacting recidivism rates.
TV Chef Converts Double-Decker Bus Into Farm on Wheels
An old double-decker bus has been converted into a mobile farm to help educate people where their food comes from.
The Pony Farm Bus, a joint project by The Pony restaurant in Chew Magna and food distributor Arthur David, will take the vehicle out to community groups and schools to run workshops on food and cooking.
The vehicle, donated by First Bus, includes a greenhouse, a hydroponics system, kitchen and dining areas and a demonstration space.
Owner of The Pony, Josh Eggleton, said: "We want to create learning opportunities - but the main thing is to incite a sense of fun and purpose."
"We've got loads of schools and grassroots organisations coming here, but it wasn't lost on me that not everybody can get here.
"We wanted to take the growing and cooking on tour into Bristol and Somerset.
Container Farms for Healthcare: How FarmBox Foods Supports Patient Nutrition and Community Health
FarmBox Foods partners with healthcare systems to deploy container farms for onsite food production.
Hospitals use fresh produce for patient meals, wellness programs, and community outreach.
The systems are designed for non-farmers, with training and long-term operational support.
Benefits include improved nutritional outcomes, predictable food budgets, and reduced reliance on external suppliers.
FarmBox Foods is contributing to ESG goals and the growing “food as medicine” movement.
Fork Farms Launches The Flex Micro, A Compact Hydroponic System That Grows Thousands of Plants in Just a Few Square Feet
Fork Farms, a leader in innovative agriculture technologies, announces the introduction of the Flex Micro™ — the company’s most compact and powerful hydroponic growing system to date. Designed to grow both microgreens and seedlines, the Flex Micro produces thousands of plants efficiently, affordably and consistently.
With the global microgreens market expected to surpass $6 billion by 2030, demand for fresh, sustainability-grown, nutrient-dense microgreens is on the rise. The Flex Micro is designed to meet consumer demand, blending simplicity with flexibility to serve chefs, educators, and community growers.
Shipping Containers Turn into Farms in Havana’s Poorest District
Restaurants in Havana, Cuba are receiving boxes of sprouting vegetable from a small start-up growing business every few day.
Meanwhile, many of the founder’s neighbors struggle to feed their families in Cuba’s worst economic crisis in decades.
The project, called Enparalelo (Parallel Roads), was created by architect Oliesky Fabre. He proudly shows off a 2022 UN World Food Programme award, given to only 10 projects out of 200 in Latin America and the Caribbean for fighting hunger in innovative ways.
A Different Kind of Farmer
Kris Sutton was an aircraft mechanic for 13 years. Now he grows lettuce, a career picked up during the Covid-19 pandemic, and realized on his property in Enfield, Nova Scotia. In some ways, aircraft were simpler.
“When we got the farm,” says Sutton, “I didn’t realize I was going to be a chemist, an electrician, a plumber, as well as a farmer.”
That’s because his is not a traditional farm, with acres, soil, sunlight, and spring rain. His is an indoor, hydroponic, vertical farm, with 9,000 leafy greens growing simultaneously in a 326 square foot shipping container.
UMass Chan Debuts Container Farm With Hopes To Fight Local Food Insecurity
A local school celebrated the opening of its on-campus wellness farm with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Wellness Farm at UMass Chan Medical School was officially unveiled on Friday. It's a 40-foot hydroponic container farm that can produce up to three tons of produce every year.
UMass Chan hopes that the farm will help fight food insecurity in the community. It will provide food for Worcester Public Schools’ North Quadrant schools and the Max Baker Resource Center, a student food pantry located on UMass Chan’s campus, as well as support staff members in need.
Communities Find Fresh Approaches To Tackling Food Insecurity
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.
Harvest Today Scales Up Hydroponic Grow Wall to Support Global Food Sustainability
Founder of Harvest Today Rick Langille, working with his UK & European team Harvest Today EU entrepreneurs Mark and Michelle Emmott, have announced the expansion of their revolutionary hydroponic vertical grow wall, redesigned to meet the needs of both household growers and large-scale commercial producers.
Harvest Today's updated Indoor Grow Wall is durable, scalable, and highly efficient, making it ideal for anyone seeking sustainable solutions for high-volume yields and healthy, organic produce.
Harvest Today EU began when friend Rick Langille showed Mark his initial designs for the "Harvest Wall", a vertical hydroponic system.
New Smart Container Farm Hits The Market
Reinfa has released a smart vertical farming shipping container, offering a complete, ready-to-use farming solution that fits inside either a 20ft or 40ft container. Built for urban farmers, retailers, restaurants, and agri-entrepreneurs, this system makes it possible to grow fresh, sustainable, and pesticide-free produce anytime, anywhere.
The Reinfa farm is designed as a plug-and-grow system, fully equipped with hydroponic and aeroponic racks that are easy to operate. Its multi-layer growing capability allows for single or multiple vertical racks, maximizing harvests within a compact footprint.
Flex Farms Provide Southwest Wisconsin Schools With New Agricultural Opportunities
FENNIMORE, Wis. (WMTV) - Fennimore High School is one of 22 area schools receiving a hydroponic indoor flex farm, a compact system to grow plants and produce. Southwest Wisconsin Technical College funded the farms to support learning experiences in K-12 schools.
Executive Dean at Southwest Tech, Kim Maier, says the partnership to provide flex farms to school districts supports their goals to support agriculture education.
Fennimore High School is one of 22 area schools receiving a hydroponic indoor flex farm, a compact system to grow plants and produce.
Growcer and Growtainers Announce a Strategic Alliance, Pledge Collaboration Over Competition
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.
USA - BOSTON - VIDEO: Grow Food Here – Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro South
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.
From Warship to Greenhouse: Canada’s Floating Farm
On the quiet coast off the traditional territory of the Squamish people in British Columbia, a retired Canadian warship lies moored in the still waters of Burrard Inlet. Once a Bay-class minesweeper, she braved Arctic ice and Pacific storms, serving the Canadian Navy through tense decades of the Cold War. Today, her mission has shifted dramatically: she grows food.
Inside her steel hull, the armory has been cleared, sailors’ bunks disinfected, and reflective film laid along the walls. Rows of vertical racks glow with violet LED light, cradling lettuces, cherry tomatoes, and bright red peppers. What was once a machine of war has been reborn as a floating vertical farm, a vessel now committed not to combat but to sustenance, resilience, and innovation.
Hydroponic Farming Takes Root in Indiana
Mario Vitalis, owner and founder of New Age Provisions in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Hydroponic farming is a growing industry in Indiana.
“Hydroponic farming allows us to reimagine how and where we can grow food,” says Mario Vitalis. “We are no longer bound to the rules of traditional farming. Technology gives us a new way to farm and a fresh take on the supply chain.”
Vitalis is owner of New Age Provisions, where he grows a variety of leafy greens inside two 40-foot shipping containers on a repurposed used car lot off 10th Street in Indianapolis. His Indiana-based hydroponic farming operation requires no land or soil, and it uses controlled lighting and less water to produce nutritious, locally grown kale, lettuce, herbs and collard greens.

