Container mushroom farming is a method of cultivating mushrooms inside a retrofitted 40-foot shipping container. The entire growing process—from preparing the substrate to harvesting—is conducted within a controlled environment. These farms typically include:

• A mixing station for combining substrates (e.g., soybean hulls and hardwood pellets)

• Steam cabinets for pasteurization

• A clean lab with a HEPA flow hood for inoculation with grain spawn

• Colonization chambers for mycelium development

• Fruiting rooms equipped with misting systems and shelving for vertical space optimization

The Vertical Farm at Illinois State University officially opened May 1, 2025, to serve as an example of sustainable urban agriculture and train and prepare students for careers in agriculture and horticulture specialty crop production. The facility is a joint partnership among the College of Applied Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture, and Office of Sustainability that will serve as a demonstration site for local community groups, schools, and business entrepreneurs.

The Vertical Farm uses a repurposed shipping container with an enclosed, controlled environment to grow plants year-round. The 40-foot-by-8-foot (320 square feet) container is designed using a vertical hydroponic growing system with a recirculating nutrient solution and light-emitting diode (LED) lighting system. The unit will be able to grow 4,600 plants, production equivalent to 1-2 acres of field production, using 95% less water or approximately 5 gallons of water per day. 

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.

Across the Mississippi River on the Wisconsin border, a student at Winona Senior High School in Minnesota is growing up to 200 pounds of lettuce each month for school lunches — right in her school’s cafeteria. 

Sophomore Miriam Jackson is in charge of her school’s Flex Farms, which are hydroponic farms developed by Green Bay company Fork Farms for use in educational environments. Under Jackson’s care, the compact indoor growing systems have turned into a significant food source for more than 800 students at Winona Senior High School.

“They really like it. When we serve our Fork Farms lettuce, the students are actually building more salads,” Jennifer Walters, school nutrition director for the district, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

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.

A coded-gate and long, curved driveway lead to a collection of white shipping containers, several fashioned in a row on the property.

Dillon Dabelgott, the senior manager of cultivation, shows off one of the areas he oversees: A climate controlled pod where medical marijuana is grown. It would be full of cannabis plants, but the latest crops were harvested in the weeks prior. Instead, the container sits mostly empty, with supply outpacing current demand.

Large white buckets of dried cannabis sit in a row on a metal table, each a different strain with names like Black Triangle Kush. They all have their unique differences, from look and smell to their cannabinoid makeup.

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. 

The farm uses three old shipping containers that have been turned into climate-controlled “pods” each with 168 square feet of growing space.

Each insulated container holds seven racks with shelves for plants, tall racks for vine crops, and six 50-gallon tanks with nutrient solutions filtered by ultraviolet light. A large exhaust fan controls carbon dioxide and humidity levels, while a dehumidifier keeps the air just right.

All the power comes from Canada’s northernmost solar and wind setup.

It includes two six-kilowatt wind turbines, two sheets of solar panels producing 7.32 kilowatts each, lithium-ion battery banks, and a diesel backup generator. This system keeps the farm running all year, even with little sunlight.

National nonprofit organization Impact Justice (IJ) was awarded a $97,000 grant from Power:Ed, the philanthropy of SC Student Loan Corporation, to support Growing Justice, a pilot program in partnership with Amplified Ag, to transform upcycled shipping containers into a fully functional vertical farm behind bars. This first-of-its-kind vertical farm job training program in South Carolina prisons will expand training opportunities, offer new reentry support, and provide fresh produce to the incarcerated residents at Camille Graham Correctional Center, offering transformative potential for incarcerated women and their families across South Carolina.

Bear Creek High School senior Johnny Ngo talks about his experience at the FarmBox Foods campus near Denver for his senior field study.

Our core technology is a modular, self-contained vertical growing container equipped with a glazing wall for natural light optimization, a precision climate control system, and adaptive airflow.

It is built for: Municipalities seeking to improve urban greening and comply with biodiversity net gain targetsCorporates needing verifiable ESG projects for CO₂ sequestration and EU Taxonomy compliance Universities & Schools as a living educational tool to teach about trees, sustainability, and environmental responsibility Construction or infrastructure projects with offsetting or restoration requirement

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.

The combination of climate change effects together with urban population expansion demands immediate development of food production systems which are sustainable and space-efficient. Vertical farming leads agricultural progress through its capacity to generate significant amounts of pesticide-free food inside controlled environments, which maximises urban area through vertical stacking.

The agricultural future is being reshaped by vertical farming markets which combine advanced hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic systems with sustainable practices and smart technologies.

Morgan Community College's Vertical Hydroponic Farm arrived on campus in mid-2024, and it's had a major impact on multiple fields of study.

Bill Miller, Precision Agriculture Faculty & Division Chair for Career Technical Education programming, talks about how it has inspired students and faculty and brought a new dynamic to interactive learning.

In a quiet corner of rural Moldova, inside the concrete walls of a former Soviet barn, a new kind of food revolution is quietly taking root—literally. Thanks to an innovative partnership between Canadian ag-tech company Just Vertical and humanitarian organisation GlobalMedic, a fully functional indoor hydroponic farm is now providing hundreds of pounds of fresh produce each month to Ukrainian refugees and local Moldovan families facing ongoing food insecurity.

The farm, capable of growing more than 1,000 plants simultaneously, was completed in just eight months and is already making a meaningful difference in a region under strain. As war continues across the border in Ukraine.

Public Act 25-152 includes provisions to increase the statewide municipal property farm tax exemption from $100,000 to $250,000 and permits municipalities to offer additional farm property tax exemptions of up to $250,000 on top of the $250,000 statewide exemption.

It also provides immunity to agritourism operators for any civil action for personal injury or property damage and exempts hoop houses and high tunnels from building permitting or construction standards. In addition, a section of the bill regulates the use of drones for agricultural purposes, establishes a manure management program to be administered by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DOAG), provides for the purchase and operations of shipping container farms to grow food for schools and food pantries, and mandates that anyone selling soil amendments must register annually with DOAG.

Babylon Micro-Farms, a leader in on-site vertical farming, is proud to announce a series of awards and recent recognitions that highlight the company’s accelerating momentum and global impact across healthcare, hospitality, education, and corporate dining.

Babylon Micro-Farms was ranked #34 on the 2024 FoodTech 500, marking a leap of over 100 places from its 2022 ranking of #135. This globally respected list celebrates the most promising companies at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability.