The Colorado Chamber of Commerce today announced that the Vertical Hydroponic Farm by FarmBox Foods has been named the Coolest Thing Made in Colorado for 2025. The award was presented that the Coolest Thing Made Awards ceremony presented by FirstBank.

The Vertical Hydroponic Farm, manufactured in Aurora, uses patented vertical farming technology inside upcycled shipping containers to maximize growing space while minimizing water and energy use.

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.

Verde Compacto has installed a full-scale vertical farm inside Estadio Akron, home to Club Deportivo Guadalajara (Chivas). Just beyond the stands, a container system grows leafy greens, herbs, and wheatgrass for direct use in the stadium's kitchens.

"We wanted to prove that you don't need to be in the countryside, or even outside a stadium, to grow fresh, high-quality food," says Juan Gabriel Succar, Co-Founder of Verde Compacto.

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.

A 40-foot shipping container in Dededo is growing what its operators believe could help solve Guam’s food security challenges: fresh lettuce harvested hours before reaching consumers’ tables and sold well below imported prices.

Sunny Grow Inc., which began operations in March, represents Guam’s latest venture into vertical farming. Earlier efforts struggled with high electricity costs and logistics, but Vice President Yi Yuan believes their approach can succeed where others failed.

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.

• FarmBox Foods helps hospitals estimate financial and nutritional ROI before the implementation of their container farms.

• Key factors include operational costs, yield, reduced readmissions, and local sourcing benefits.

• Predictable production enables budget planning over the long term.

• Bonus depreciation incentives make CAPEX more attractive for institutions.

• ROI is also measured in patient outcomes, staff wellness, and community engagement.

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.

A Pagosa Springs-based small business that uses a controlled-climate container farm to grow culinary and functional mushrooms is now certified organic.

Behind the Tooth & Gill Mushroom Co. brand is husband-and-wife team Aaron Carter and Lauren Hawksworth, both of whom left the corporate world to pursue their passion for improving community access to healthy food in the form of gourmet mushrooms.

These particular mushrooms are grown entirely in the confines of an insulated, tech-assisted shipping container farm built by Colorado-based FarmBox Foods.

Malnutrition afflicts 20–50% of hospital inpatients worldwide, which means 1 in 4 admitted patients battle longer hospital stays, higher readmission risk, and slower recovery. These alarming rates remain consistent across North America and globally, and the problem often intensifies during hospitalization. Too often, food services cannot deliver truly nutrient-rich produce—conventional supply chains and lengthy storage lead to nutrient loss before food even reaches the plate.

Company growing hydroponic trees for burn scars

There are new baby blue spruce trees growing near Sedalia that are unlike any others.

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.

• Vertical farming is being adopted by healthcare systems to provide fresh, nutrient-rich food directly onsite.

• FarmBox Foods offers shipping container farms designed for non-farmers, with training and operational support.

• Hospitals use these systems for patient meals, cafeteria offerings, and community outreach.

• Vertical farming contributes to ESG goals and therapeutic agriculture initiatives.

• Early adopters are using it for wellness programs, cost control, and food system resilience.

A small vertical farming facility has been approved for a Red Deer County business park.

The county’s municipal planning commission approved on Tuesday an application by Salad Oasis to set up a hydroponic farming operation in two sea cans in a pair of storage units in Energy Business Park just south of Red Deer.

The primary focus of the new facility will be the year-round cultivation of leafy greens, including lettuce, kale, arigula, spinach and Swiss chard, along with broccoli, radishes and mushrooms. Food grown will go to stores, restaurants and farmers markets and will not be sold at the site.

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.

"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.

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.

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.