Researchers from the University of York in the United Kingdom have developed a new model that could help farmers decide which "light recipe" to use in indoor farms to boost yields, which will come in handy as the world's population grows. 

As the news release on the study, which was published in Quantitative Plant Biology, explained, the recipe is essentially different combinations of lighting that can be altered based on location and the type of plants grown. The research was conducted at the indoor urban farm Grow It York, which is uniquely located inside a shipping container. Vertically Urban, a UK-based horticultural lighting company, also collaborated on the study and analyzed how lighting impacted the growth of crops in various parts of the facility. 

A South Side agricultural hub where young people grow food, cook healthy dishes and supply fresh produce for neighbors was one of 14 projects awarded a Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grant Thursday. 

The Gary Comer Youth Center Food Sovereignty Hub will receive $250,000 through the grant program. Mayor Brandon Johnson joined campus leaders and Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th), whose ward includes the youth center, to announce the news in Greater Grand Crossing Wednesday. 

The money will be used to expand the Food Sovereignty Hub, 7230 S. South Chicago Ave., which will include a greenhouse, an outdoor kitchen classroom, a Farmbox container farm with an indoor hydroponic garden, a newly designed commercial space for Farmers Markets and a chicken coop.

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.

On Saturday morning, a hydroponic farm was launched at Africville Lookoff Park to provide the immigrant and African Nova Scotian communities access to culturally relevant food.

The project, co-founded by Dr. Simone Le Gendre and Chukwuku Orji under EduHaus Inc., is called the Roots and Harvest Africville Farm Project. It was initiated when Feed Nova Scotia announced its Shipping Containers Community Pitch Project — which called for pitches from community organizations working to promote food justice. 

The co-founders participated in the contest and won two shipping containers. They then converted the containers into an AI-powered hydroponic farm with the help of several partners, including Halifax Regional Municipality.

CEA Advisors, in collaboration with Hydrofarm and Sycamore, Illinois-based CM-Fabrication, has announced the delivery of its first Tissue Culture Micropropagation Growtainer® Lab to Nash Nurseries in Owosso, Michigan. The nursery, which has been in operation for over 160 years, specializes in chestnuts, pawpaws, trees, shrubs, and ornamentals.

The Growtainer® Lab is designed to support plant tissue culture and micropropagation through a controlled, modular system housed within insulated shipping containers.

VIDEO: Maine Harvest Farms - Delivery of a Freight Farms Shipping Container Farm.

Welcome to Maine Harvest Farms! We are a farm located in Southern Maine offering all-natural locally produced farm products to our customers.

We will be partnering with other local Maine Farmers to offer you a wide selection of high-quality and ethically raised beef, poultry, pork, produce, and more!

Venus Kau’iokawekiu Rosete-Medeiros, right, CEO of Hale Kipa, and Gerry Labiste, left, communications manager at Hale Kipa, walk toward the Freight Farm structure, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Ewa Beach.

Hale Kipa installed the “Freight Farm,” a hydroponic agricultural facility built inside of a shipping container, which can grow 2 to 6 tons of green crops a year.

Homeless and at-risk shelter residents will cultivate their own healthy food and share with the community.

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.

Illinois State University has launched its first Vertical Farm, a high-tech, climate-controlled agriculture system housed inside a repurposed shipping container. After years of planning, the farm opened in the spring and is now producing its first crop of leafy greens, with a focus on student learning and sustainable food production.

“This project started five years ago, so to finally have seeds growing and students involved is incredibly rewarding,” said Dr. David Kopsell, a horticulture professor in the Department of Agriculture. “We’re creating an environment where plants can thrive year-round, and where students can explore the future of food.”

Researchers have developed a new formula to allow urban farmers to design their own "light recipe"—a combination of different colors of lighting that could help increase crop yields in vertical farms.

The study, conducted at Grow It York, an indoor urban community farm based in a shipping container at SPARK in the city, developed a mathematical model that could help inform urban farmers of how light varies in different areas of a confined space and how to use this information to design better lighting systems.

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.

We all like to think that the fancy gourmet mushrooms advertised on the menu of our favorite restaurant were foraged in the wild by a grey bearded man with a wooden cane, knee-high forester boots, and a feathered fedora. 

In reality, those mushrooms were likely grown on a farm. But when we say mushroom farm it’s sometimes a climate-controlled shipping container sitting in a gravel parking lot somewhere on the outskirts of town. While this doesn’t sound as glamorous as gallivanting around the woods, the mushrooms are just as good.

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.”

VIDEO: Scott Massey Explains GRO ANU

Global food systems face significant challenges from climate change, population growth, and deteriorating soil quality, necessitating a 70% increase in food production by 2050. Urban vertical farming, utilizing repurposed shipping containers, offers a sustainable solution that efficiently uses space and resources. These systems produce fresh produce year-round and reduce food waste by minimizing transportation distances.

With innovative practices and renewable energy integration, container farms represent a viable future for agriculture in urban settings, addressing both food security and environmental concerns.

Our global food systems are under siege, with climate change, natural disasters disrupting supply chains, and conflicts affecting agriculture in vulnerable regions.

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.

A shipping container in the middle of EPIC Campus in Littleton, Colorado, has become an unexpected training ground for the next generation of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) professionals. Inside, high school students grow crops hydroponically from seed to harvest, building technical knowledge and discovering new career paths in a rapidly evolving sector.

The vertical hydroponic farm, built by FarmBox Foods, operates as part of the school's Natural Resources Pathway. Students manage crop production from start to finish, applying lessons in plant physiology, hydroponics, and food safety, while working toward an industry-recognized BASF plant science certification.

Discover how a team at Central Wyoming College is reshaping agriculture using hydroponic technology to grow fresh, local produce—even during harsh winter months.

From LED-lit freight farms to nutrient-rich grow plugs, this innovative method allows for year-round cultivation in some of the most challenging climates.

Join the journey as students and experts work together to advance sustainable farming, train the next generation, and bring fresh greens to communities in need.

This is more than just farming—it's a food revolution.