Ray Fankhauser, sustainability lead at the school, was one of the people behind entering the school for the award.

Fankhauser said that with the level of interest from the students to work the garden, they needed something bigger, so they looked at developing a modular hydroponic farm using Canadian technology called Growcer.

Hawaiʻi Department of Education is rolling out a new process that encourages small farm micropurchases of locally grown produce for school meals throughout the state in an effort to advance farm-to-school initiatives.

For a decade, Growcer has been working alongside communities across Canada to prove that local, year-round food production is not only possible, it is transformative.

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.

GreenWave, a national nonprofit, opened this first-of-its-kind nursery in Kodiak in August, with Conrad as its nursery manager and lead operator.

It’s Alaska’s newest hatchery. She said her focus is to produce quality kelp by preventing bacteria from growing with the seeds.

Living in a small, remote community can make it hard to get fresh fruit and vegetables in a pinch. Add to that road closures due to wildfires or storms, making access to grocery stores tough for residents of Anacla and Bamfield.

It also makes bringing in fresh produce equally difficult for the local grocer.

According to the data, the food production method will grow from $8 billion in 2025 to $39.7 billion by 2032. The technique is named for growing crops in layers on top of each other, using water-based systems rather than soil.

The report states that the most popular place to build vertical farms commercially is in shipping containers, due to their “flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.”

To expand the program, Delaware partnered with Growcer to add a modular vertical farm. The indoor farm can grow fresh produce year-round using less water and land than outdoor farming.

Located near the pantry, it will supply members with freshly harvested lettuces, leafy greens like kale and spinach, and herbs like mint and basil to take home.

In Alert, Nunavut — the northernmost continuously inhabited place on Earth, just 817 km from the North Pole — winter brings 24-hour darkness and temperatures below -30°C. Fresh food is typically flown in, but flights are often delayed for weeks, leaving residents without produce.

To reduce this dependency, Molly Farquhar launched The C.A.N. (Continuous Alert Nourishment) — a hydroponic vertical farm built inside a renovated shipping container.

Farish Anfal and Calvin Aranha, both 26 years old, are budding techpreneurs who have integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into hydroponic farms through their start-up company, Krop AI.

They started Krop AI in 2021 as a startup agritech company based out of Brahmavara in Udupi district.

Summer Street Farm grows fresh vegetables year-round to help provide local food security, and employees with diverse abilities say they feel good about contributing. The CBC's Yuan Wang took a tour of the farm.

Here's the thing about Summer Street Farm in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia: it started with people who just wanted to do something impactful around food.

Gruninger’s farm is hydroponic. Instead of soil, he grows his plants exclusively with water-nutrient solutions, alongside various substrates or cultures. The cargo crate-farm is a bustling workspace, clean yet alive.

Inside it’s always temperate, with a consistently moderate temperature and neutral white lighting flowing from the edges of the ceiling.

The vertical smart farm has been established in the form of a container-type vertical farm on farmland in Beopgot-dong, Ilsanseo-gu.

It is operated as a facility equipped with a smart environmental control system for cultivating functional leafy vegetables.

Growcer is bringing back Rootcamp, an immersive, in-person training program for hydroponic modular farming.

Having already trained over 100 growers and produced 10 million+ servings of vegetables, Growcer’s bootcamp combines hands-on farm operations with essential business training.

Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN), in partnership with ADRA Canada and Growcer Corp., and with additional funding from the Latter-Day Saints, is launching a year-round hydroponic farm early this year to tackle food insecurity in northern Manitoba while promoting a sustainable and resilient local food system.

The freight container is not just a teaching tool but also provides fresh produce for students around the district.

Known as a Freight Farm, the container is filled with walls outfitted with equipment to water and nourish hundreds of plants, and lights to help them grow.

Back in June, the school received a new freight farm, which is a converted shipping container made to grow plants.

It was made possible through the Massachusetts FRESH Grant from Mass. Farm to School, and since then, the garden has been thriving.

The Latvian company Carbon Less Future has developed a fully automated vertical growing container for cultivating tree seedlings.

While vertical growing systems are not a new idea in horticulture, until now they have typically been used for strawberries, lettuce, and vegetable seedlings.