containerfarm Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Hydroponic Container Farms and Mushroom Farms

Farming Solutions for a Sustainable (and Less Scary) Future

Farming Solutions are needed – It seems every day you come across a news story that paints a very bleak future for traditional farming and the consumers who benefit from it.

We’ll briefly explore the many challenges facing the agricultural industry, but we’ll also posit some potential ways for farming operations large and small to adapt to changing times and conditions.

Shifting climate patterns are making it vastly more difficult to predict whether a crop will make it to harvest. Heat waves, hail storms, cold snaps and floods have become more pervasive and intense in recent years. Even crops that may not be directly affected by catastrophes, like the severe drought currently gripping the western portion of the U.S., are being indirectly impacted by residual factors, like smoke from wildfires.

We’re also facing other crippling issues without a foreseeable fix. Supply chains that support agriculture have been stretched to their limit since the beginning of the pandemic for a variety of reasons, including transportation availability, labor shortages, and associated delays affecting raw material sourcing. And the skyrocketing cost of fertilizer is further complicating matters for traditional farming operations and having an outsized impact on already-thin profit margins.

But what if there was a way to circumvent these issues using innovations in agtech? It sounds impossible, and while it comes with its own set of challenges, indoor growing, especially in urban areas, could be a big part of the answer going forward.

Science and tech have come a long way in the last decade (hello, sensor technology!), allowing growers to do much more with much less in a smaller footprint. And hyperlocal farming means produce grows near the consumer, eliminating supply chain-related woes. Instead of spending the first half of its shelf life in transit, veggies get to the end user much quicker, resulting in less food waste. Local growing also reduces the need to burn fossil fuels to get food to its destination, and empowers communities to gain more control over their own food supply.

It’s hard to put a value on security and reliability, and we certainly won’t attempt to, but controlled-environment agriculture allows people to harvest large yields year-round without external variables getting in the way. There’s also no need for fertilizers or pesticides, which takes possible contamination of drinking water out of the equation.

The practice is gaining momentum worldwide and already having an impact on sourcing for grocery chains, hotels, hospitals, restaurants and food banks. Likewise, farmers are embracing the technology because it provides a security blanket in uncertain times.

Tornado recovery driven by volunteers, sense of community

Scott and Melanie Walker have spent the last month helping neighbors recover from a deadly tornado that devastated Cambridge Shores, Kentucky, in December 2021.

Tornado recovery driven by volunteers, sense of community

tornado recovery - FarmBox Foods Donates

Tornado Recovery was needed – and Scott Walker was less than a mile away from his new home in Cambridge Shores, a community near Mayfield, Kentucky, when the local police turned him away.

If the officers hadn’t been there to block traffic coming into town, Scott would have been directly in the path of the deadly twister that passed through the night of Dec. 10. In fact, he’d already dodged three tornadoes in southern Illinois on his way there.

Fate stepped in and saved him, and somehow, his house escaped with only minor damage, but many of his neighbors lost their homes. The devastation was almost incomprehensible. When emergency crews began clearing a path into affected areas, Scott was the 10th car in line, and was stunned by the scale of the damage.

Since then, Scott and his wife, Melanie, did what many others have done and joined an army of volunteers, which included those who’d lost everything, and pitched in where they could. When he returned to his hometown near Chicago, Scott rallied friends and family to donate goods. He brought down two full truckloads of supplies — toiletries, water, diapers, rakes, gloves, granola bars, flashlights, extension cords — and created a GoFundMe campaign for a new playground that literally hit its $4,000 goal as this video was being made. Henry Brothers Company, a general contractor in the Chicago area, donated an SUV full of supplies, and former students of the swim coach for the Lyons Township HS Aquatics program, and their parents, were instrumental in gathering relief supplies. Melanie has spent the last few weeks helping to distribute those supplies throughout the community.

Scott and Melanie, who purchased their home in Cambridge Shores in September, are just one example of the ongoing relief efforts in Kentucky and surrounding states, where 77 people were killed during the December rash of tornadoes. Even though they didn’t know their neighbors yet, Scott and Melanie quickly made friends with them, and they plan to be there for the long haul.

“We love this place even more than when we bought our house because of how people are there for one another,” Scott said.

FarmBox Foods, a Colorado company for which his brothers serve as CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, donated a total of $750 toward the playground, and it’s hopeful that it can work with local, state and federal officials in the future on a solution for food security in disaster areas, which are often cut off from the food supply chain in the wake of a storm. FarmBox Foods builds automated farms inside shipping containers, and those container farms can provide a hyperlocal source of nutritious food. These mobile units and other innovations can help a community get back on its feet a little bit quicker, with healthy food to help power the long recovery ahead.

“It’s going to be a long process for our community. It’s been totally annihilated. Pictures can’t even tell the story,” he said. “We’re going to be here every step of the way.”

Container Farms on School Campuses – Community Supported Agriculture

With a foundation in technology and science, there’s greater interest in container farming among students of all ages. Controlled-climate farming enables people to grow food almost anywhere in the world, helping to eliminate food deserts.

Container Farms on School Campuses – School districts and teachers are always looking for new and innovative tools to capture their students’ attention and promote enthusiasm for learning.

Teaching students how their education is interwoven into later professional success just might bring purpose to those who currently find none in a traditional classroom. When you place students in a setting with engaging hands-on projects that give them practical experience, the potential for future success is limitless.

An operating container farm has a unique ability to touch multiple subjects and areas of interest for young students, especially those who want to find ways to better our world through science and tech. A container farm shows the next generations how to do more with fewer resources by engineering concrete solutions that promote sustainability. These applications have positive real-world implications, including improving our ability to feed people in food deserts and reducing the use of fossil fuels for shipping food over long distances.

Emerging technologies, including those that rely on sensors, have opened up new avenues and ideas and solutions for longstanding problems. This is an exciting prospect for a generation that increasingly is looking to eschew the typical 9-to-5 office grind and, for lack of a better term, get their hands dirty.

From using cultivation methods that require less energy and water, to developing a solid business plan, to maintaining the mechanisms that enable containerized farms to thrive, to demonstrating and quantifying the sustainability of such operations, there are many skill sets needed to make the endeavor a success.

Adding a container farm to a school campus offers high-level learning opportunities in perpetuity and equips students with expertise and experience that few other young professionals or college applicants can claim. It’s a tech-driven differentiator for schools and districts that pride themselves on thinking outside the educational box, and it could produce a wave of future entrepreneurs.

Today, container farming is a glimpse into the future. Soon, it will be the new normal, and it’s time that students of all ages get introduced to concepts that can help achieve progress that will benefit humankind.

What are the benefits to schools?

Equipping future generations with the ability to use science and technology to grow food for underserved populations.
Feeding students fresh, nutrient-dense foods.
Reducing costs associated with purchasing transported foods while enabling schools to cheaply grow their own.
Providing foods for students in need to take home with them so they will have quality food they grew themselves.
Create revenue streams for the school through school farmers markets all year long.

Container Farms on School Campuses — An operating container farm has applications to almost every school subject imaginable, from math to science to engineering.

View The FarmBox Gourmet Mushroom Container Farm

View Mushroom Farm

Food Waste Could Soon Be a Thing of the Past

Container farming near the consumer can help reduce food waste.

A 2010 assessment by the USDA’s Economic Research Service put food waste at the retail and consumer levels at 31 percent of the food supply, equaling approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food. It’s mind-boggling stats like this that leave us with one burning question: Why?

Given our integrated systems and ability to identify efficiencies in the supply chain, it’s hard to fathom how this has come to be. How can this much food be wasted, when there are so many who struggle for access to nutritious food?

Communities are starting to learn that they can take control of their own food supply. Farming year-round in upcycled shipping containers has vegetables growing right in the community they serve, so instead of lettuce (for example) withering away on a truck or in a distribution center, it’s being put on a plate the day it’s harvested.

Talk about decentralization has ramped up in the face of a global supply chain break that has companies and shoppers scrambling. Those who struggled with access to farm-fresh produce prior to the pandemic are much worse off, and there are few signs that the issues are relenting. Meanwhile, food is being wasted at record levels in American homes and restaurants.

So what can be done to reduce the amount of food waste in America? It’s going to take collaboration, innovation and a new way of thinking about how food is sourced. Grocery stores can take a cue from Natural Grocers, which is now placing vertical hydroponic containers right behind their stores, cutting out transportation altogether.

Now, imagine if five businesses in an underserved community came together to buy a container farm: what would the impact be, and how many generations would be affected by a decrease in food insecurity? What if the city government helped facilitate this venture by revamping its code and permitting system to allow for more container farms? What if grant money could help pay for year-round growing operations in low-income areas?

Slowly but surely, it’s happening. The opportunity for further improvement is there for the taking, and assembling the right partners is key.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is using its national Save the Food campaign to try and instill daily behaviors in consumers to put a dent in food waste. Go to https://www.nrdc.org/food-waste to learn more.

Likewise, the Environmental Protection Agency has planning, storage and prep tips on its website to reduce food waste at home, which saves money, reduces methane emissions from landfills, and lowers one’s carbon footprint. Go to https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-wasted-food-home for more information.

Suttons Vertical Gardens – No shipping required: Container farm provides fresh greens directly to community

Tracking the rise of community-supported agriculture, or CSAs.

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, fresh vegetables were hard to come by in rural areas outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The cost of the produce that was available began to increase, and the quality was decreasing.

It was then that Kris and Brenda Sutton circled back around to an idea that Kris had researched a few years earlier: vertical farming.

They learned that growing produce in the community where it’s consumed eliminates supply chain issues from the equation and can give customers peace of mind knowing where their food is coming from. It also means consumers get fresh, nutrient dense produce compared to those being shipped in, losing nutritional value as they are transported. Additionally they learned that the vertical farms — housed inside insulated, controlled-climate shipping containers — can operate year-round, regardless of the season, allowing for quality and consistency for the food.

(scroll to keep reading)

The idea was tossed around for a short time between the husband and wife, but after Kris was briefly put off his work as an airplane mechanic following a back injury, he laid on the couch and daydreamed more and more about running his own vertical hydroponic farm. He saw this career as a less physically demanding and more rewarding one. His “happy place” during recovery was thinking about “getting back to gardening and planting seedlings in the Spring.”

Kris and Brenda decided to contact and visit a nearby vertical farm and quickly embraced the concept and all it could offer.

“She was more excited than I was at that point,” Kris says, then adds, “well, close. On the same level.”

The owner of the container farm they visited, however, pointed out some of its inefficiencies, and recommended buying a farm from their competitor, FarmBox Foods, which offers a system that requires less labor, is more efficient and can produce larger yields.

Months later, the daydream became a reality when a FarmBox Foods container farm was placed in their backyard. Within weeks, the first crop was on its way and Sutton’s Vertical Gardens was officially in business.

Together Kris and Brenda developed a start up plan that includes selling a variety of lettuces to local grocers and restaurants between Halifax and Enfield, Nova Scotia. Sutton’s Vertical Gardens also has plans to further serve their community in the future by hopefully offering the container farm as a venue for school field trips, volunteer experience and educational purposes.

”Yes, we want to make money and have a livelihood but we also want to try and educate and inspire others to be farmers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Who better to start sharing these ideas with but our future generations?!” Brenda said.

Kris, the business’ main farmer, who comes from a family of green thumbs and has an existing 14-by-24-foot greenhouse filled with bell peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, gets up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and embarks on the shortest commute he’s ever had. He walks to the FarmBox Foods container farm in his backyard in Enfield, NS, a mere 30 feet away from the fenced-in play area for the Sutton’s adorable odd couple Boston Terrier and Great Dane, and walks into his new office.

The fresh scent and the sight of the ever growing and changing plants are a daily reminder that the Suttons are right where they should be, creating something they’re proud to soon be sharing with their local communities.

“They always say ‘try to find a job where you do what you love and it will never feel like work,’” Kris says. “I feel very lucky to be able to say I’m doing just that.”

Learn more by following Sutton’s Vertical Gardens on Instagram and Facebook.

Sutton’s Vertical Gardens grew lettuce for its first crop.

View The FarmBox Gourmet Mushroom Container Farm

View Mushroom Farm

Rise of Community Supported Agriculture During Pandemic a Signal from Consumers

Tracking the rise of community-supported agriculture, or CSAs.

From the outset of the pandemic, Community Supported Agriculture programs throughout the country saw a surge in demand as the worldwide food supply chain ground to a halt. Health-conscious consumers wanted to make sure they had access to a reliable source of fruits and veggies, and farms large and small in communities across the country were suddenly booming.

CSAs also provided a convenience factor, as people no longer had to brave the madness of the grocery store during COVID-19 related restrictions. And instead of selecting from display cases filled with questionable produce that has lost most of its shelf life and nutritional value in transit, consumers found growers right down the street — and many of them haven’t looked back.

hydroponic container farms - community supported agriculture

Community-supported agriculture is made much easier by the trend of container farming, a fast-growing market that has buy-in from a broad spectrum of producers and end users. Natural Grocers recognized the benefit of growing vegetables on site at its stores, and partnered with Colorado-based FarmBox Foods, a manufacturer of automated container farms that grow leafy greens, peppers, culinary herbs and even gourmet mushrooms.

CSAs offer membership to both individuals and suppliers. Members pay an upfront fee in return for a share of what the farm grows and harvests during a specific season.

According to Vera Fabian, an operator of a CSA in Cedar Grove, North Carolina, who was interviewed for an article for Eater.com, demand for CSA membership is even higher this year than it was in 2020.

Learn more about CSAs at www.localharvest.org/csa/.

Year-round community gardens can operate as CSAs

View The FarmBox Gourmet Mushroom Container Farm

View Mushroom Farm

Are We Approaching Global Warming and Climate Change Wrong?

Exploring a way around the unsustainable trend of clearing forests for agricultural purposes

OVERVIEW

There is a battle going on today over global warming and climate change and what to do about it. One side believes that increasingly abnormal weather patterns are a natural occurrence whether there is an increase in carbon emissions or not. They believe there is evidence that suggests that climate is cyclical and not really impacted by environmental changes or that the environmental changes are not significant enough to alter what has been unpredictable patterns in earth’s weather patterns.

The other side believes that increasing CO2 emissions have altered and continue to alter the weather patterns, and has ultimately been responsible for the increase in hurricanes, tornados, heat waves, cold spells, excessive rain, droughts, and pretty much any increase or decrease in weather patterns. This line of thinking says that the carbon emission increases are permanently destroying the earth’s ice caps, water security, food security, and ultimately the ability to sustain life.

THE ARGUMENT

The argument revolves around carbon emissions and our inability to regulate the human impact on said levels. The push is to regulate transportation, population, consumption of water and food, production of goods, or pretty much every facet of our daily life as we now know it. Here in the United States, there are those who believe that we cannot alone make a difference if other countries are not following the same path. Others believe that we must take the lead in order for others to follow. This is the conundrum we all find ourselves in. However, maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. What if both sides have validity? What if there was a solution that both sides of the argument could agree on 100%?

THE CULPRIT

There has been a decrease in forest land around the world for decades now. There have been warnings for as long as this has been happening, yet we have forgotten about the decimation of these natural habitats. Deforestation is the leading cause of 15% of carbon emissions. (The World Counts)

According to some estimates, tropical rainforests store more than 210 gigatons of CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere.

Trees absorb greenhouse gases, and they produce oxygen and water vapor that they then release into the atmosphere. However, after deforestation, these gases are left unchecked in the atmosphere, creating a layer of ozone that traps heat, leading to global warming.

Arguably, our carbon emissions have been going up as the natural forests have been increasingly eliminated, therefore making it close to impossible to get control of. If we were to concentrate on replenishing forests at an equal rate by which they are being destroyed, at minimum our carbon levels might remain relatively the same. Imagine if we could start to build back the forest to levels seen in previous decades, we might actually lower carbon emissions naturally rather than fighting over how to get it done and who has to give up what in order to save our planet. Consider this:

*The world lost 20 million acres of primary forest between 1990 and 2020. (FAO)

*Even though the loss rate slowed down by half from 2010 to 2020, we’re still losing too much primary forest, according to the rainforest destruction figures.

*Trees absorb the carbon dioxide that humans exhale, but they also trap the greenhouse gases we create every day.

*Deforestation leaves animals without homes. But it also allows these gasses to go into the atmosphere, increasing global warming. For these reasons, our focus is on the wrong area. Consider these staggering statistics; *Deforestation is the leading cause of 15% of carbon emissions. (The World Counts)

*According to deforestation and climate change stats published by Al Jazeera, Amazon’s carbon emissions rose by 9.6% in 2019.

*More than 20% of the world’s primary forest loss occurred in Canada. (ThoughtCo.)

*About 1,740 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest were destroyed between 2017 and 2019. (Mongabay)

*According to Haiti deforestation facts from Pacific Standard, the country may completely lose its rainforests in just 20 years. ()

*Bolivia is the fifth leading country in deforestation. (Mighty Earth)

*From 2001 to 2019, Indonesia lost 93% of tree cover in areas where deforestation is predominant. (Global Forest Watch)

*Deforestation affects Africa at twice the world rate. (Sustainable Food Systems)

*Africa is losing 3.9 million hectares of forest every year. (Ressources Magazine)

*Deforestation brings new diseases, such as COVID-19. When habitats are disrupted, animals come in contact with people and spread new diseases onto the human race. Many believe this is how HIV and the Ebola virus spread. (FutureLearn)

The data above is not really in dispute. If it were, the argument would not be about whether or not it was happening. What is clearly not in dispute is that these are disastrous figures and information that should shake us at our very core. While there are efforts to reverse this, the Amazon decreasing deforestation by two thirds is simply not enough. What is the United States doing about it? Is there really enough awareness among the citizens to gain support for solutions? What are the potential solutions for the U.S. as well as other countries that need our assistance and leadership?

If it is the belief that the U.S. should lead the way, then the U.S. is going to have to put pressure on other countries and resource providers to assist them, as well as take care of its own backyard. Since we can all agree that this is one of the main culprits of climate change and global warming, it should not be so difficult to garner the political capital in order to make a difference. We are arguably putting billions of dollars in assistance to other programs that are not producing a dollar’s worth of results.

We can all agree that losing our forests ultimately will be our demise if not altered. Yet, we battle politically on an argument where two sides are dug in and will not budge. Meanwhile, we are wasting valuable time as the forests are vanishing right in front of our very eyes.

The problem is not just found in the U.S. Read the alarming statistics that impact us all.

*In 2019, the world lost more than 8.9 million acres of tropical rainforests. (Bloomberg)

*By 2030, there may be only 10% of the rainforests left. (The World Counts)

*Since the 1600s, the U.S. has destroyed 75% of virgin forests. (LoveToKnow)

This is the common hurdle that makes it as difficult as the climate change argument. However, this is where the U.S. can really lead the way by providing assistance, and other countries might be more accepting of the help. We need to have a “Forests for Life” program.

SOLUTIONS

Solutions exist! Once the United States acknowledges that building and replenishing forests is a priority, other countries will follow if given some guidance and assistance. We have to remember that while the main issue may not exist within our country solely, the impact of other countries where the impact is larger impacts us entirely. It alters what we can and cannot do. It means that we have to ration our freedom and our way of life in order to minimize what is not being done somewhere else. Once that has been established, a plan needs to be put in place to help foster the replenishment of forests and or start new ones where they once existed. FarmBox Foods, a hydroponic growing company, has come up with a means to propagate tree seedlings. The farms can simultaneously propagate more than 9,000 tree plants within a 320 sq. foot container. It is a controlled-environment unit that can grow trees anywhere and operate off grid in areas that do not have a secure or reliable source of electricity. The farms operate with minimal water usage, and the fact that they are transportable is a significant characteristic.

A FarmBox Foods farm can be deployed in the areas where the program will be implemented. Once the farms have done their job, they can be deployed to another location. An even greater impact would be having the farms working in other countries. Imagine Africa creating forests in areas where its sustainable. Imagine Bolivia being able to replenish its devastated forests. Imagine Haiti being able to regrow its forested lands. Imagine countries that could have the ability to harvest and restore, generating revenues and saving the planet. Once the plants have reached planting maturity, they can be placed into areas to begin creating growth of trees that will slow and eventually turn around the carbon problem the world is experiencing.

CLEARING FORESTS FOR AGRICULTURAL NEEDS – IT’S THE BIGGEST OF PROBLEMS!

It is a little-known fact that agricultural lands are often acquired through forest devastation. Consider these facts:

*Illegal logging and agriculture are some of the main culprits for deforestation. Sadly, having fewer forests isn’t the only consequence of land clearing. The aftermath is causing disastrous effects on the entire ecosystem.

*Some 80% of the tropical rainforests are destroyed due to agriculture. (Greenpeace USA)

If the forests are being turned into agriculture, then you have to take away the incentive for why this is happening and provide agriculture that’s sustainable and does not need the space in order to grow. FarmBox Foods also can provide some solutions to curb the need to acquire huge amounts of land in order to provide the same amount of food. FarmBox Foods farms can be stacked and fill unused warehouses while providing massive amounts of food for the population in need. They can be operated in any climate and have a controlled environment, unlike traditional farming.

With a company like FarmBox Foods, you eliminate the need to clear forests, and introduce sustainability and food security with a more efficient, lower use of resources, and without pesticides and fertilizers that poison the food and the earth.

FARMBOX FOODS: ONE COMPANY PROVIDING SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR A WORLD BEING THREATENED BY AN EXISTING PROBLEM

FarmBox Foods provides a means to propagate trees to be planted in order to save, replenish, or start forests that have been lost or devastated. FarmBox Foods can use the same farm to help diminish the need to clear forests to provide for lands in order to feed an ever-growing population and supply wood for the ever-increasing demand for housing and other construction. If we really want to make a change, then we need to take out the politics and turn words into action before it really is too late. As we debate the validity of climate change, time is ticking by and it could be too late. If we can really take back our forests and institute good forest management, we can begin to settle the other things that may or may not be affecting our climate and the health of our planet. If the politicians in the U.S. really want to make a difference, then they will implement sustainable container farming now and make history as the group that saved the planet. It’s clear that when the forests are gone, our planet goes with it. Then it won’t matter who was right or who was wrong.

C Lazy U Ranch Will Grow Produce for Guests with Container Farm

A historic dude ranch in the mountains of Colorado is using a high-tech container farm to broaden its focus on farm-to-table options for guests.

Having been in business for 102 years, C Lazy U Ranch in Granby has a storied reputation as a luxurious, year-round mountain getaway with 8,500 acres of land for a multitude of activities. The ranch’s culinary program is also well known for its ability to craft the perfect meal, and some of the fresh leafy greens that come with those meals will soon be grown on site in an automated Vertical Hydroponic Farm built by Colorado-based FarmBox Foods.

“We saw an opportunity with FarmBox Foods to essentially have a year-round farm-to-table option,” said Paul Klees, assistant general manager of C Lazy U Ranch.

Guests and members will have the opportunity to tour the futuristic, controlled-climate farm — based inside a repurposed shipping container — and see where the food they’re eating is grown. C Lazy U Ranch is planning to grow lettuce and culinary herbs inside the 320-square-foot farm, where the entire growing process, from seed to harvest, takes place. The sensor-based technology and insulation in the container farm are superior to greenhouses, which are susceptible to the bitter cold of the Colorado Rockies, Klees said.

Purchasing a Vertical Hydroponic Farm is “just another step in the ranch’s continuing effort to create authentic farm-to-table dining,” Klees said.

“There are economic aspects to it because we’re shipping in all of the food, including produce,” he said. “When guests eat at our restaurants, we want the meals to resonate with them, and what people are looking for is healthy, organic, fresh produce.”

The 200 horses on the property already benefit from C Lazy U’s sustainable approach to food sourcing; most of the hay they eat is grown on the ranch. C Lazy U is also supplied with water by its own spring and operates its own wastewater facilities.

The exterior of the container farm will be finished with a rustic scheme so it will easily blend in with its natural surroundings, which include a creek and historic structures.

C Lazy U began tending beehives last year, and Klees described the move as a “huge win” because both tours and ranch honey have become popular among visitors. The container farm is slated to be the next hands-on attraction at the ranch, where guests and members could have the opportunity to harvest their own veggies and prepare meals with a chef.

“It’s interactive, it’s educational, and it builds into our vision and mission statement of having a sustainable model,” Klees said.

Using Blackhawk Equipment for prefabrication, RK Mission Critical for manufacturing and assembly, and Absolute Logistics for transport, the container farm is scheduled for delivery in mid-August.

Growing the Trees Needed for Reforestation Efforts

When considering reforestation, the blue spruce is the largest known tree of its species in the country. This tree is recognized not only for its size but also the critical ecosystem services that it provides, such as food and shelter for wildlife, water purification abilities, and its role in absorbing CO2 from our atmosphere and storing carbon in its wood, according to AmericanForests.org.

Our Vertical Hydroponic Farm (VHF) farm is capable of housing up to 4,800 seeds in the seed table and 4,104 plants in the grow walls. The farm’s climate can be adjusted to provide the ideal temperature, watering schedule, and nutrients for successful tree production. With a germination period of 10-14 days and a 95% success rate, followed by 60 days in the grow walls, FarmBox Foods makes reforestation possible anywhere, anytime, year-round. Annually grow up to 35,000 trees in 320 square feet while using only 3-5 gallons of water per day.

Efficiently manage the labor of your farm averaging 8-10 hours per week with the ability to remotely monitor your farms conditions.

One full time employee can effectively manage up to 4 farms, producing up to 140,000 saplings annually.

Greatly reduces the labor and need for acreage compared to traditional nurseries, while providing the ideal climate needs through any season in any location.

Traditional tree nurseries, when funded under federal or state cost-share programs, are required to have a minimum of 300 well-spaced seedlings per acre (1 acre = 43,560 square feet) in the first growing season. Tree spacing most commonly used ranges from 435 to 726 trees per acre for reforestation purposes as well as wildlife enhancement programs. In the FarmBox Foods Vertical Hydroponic Farm, you can accommodate over 8,900 seedlings and saplings in 320 square feet.

Impacts of climate change

Climate change is leading to unprecedented threats to our forests, including rising temperatures, prolonged drought, increased pests, and larger, more severe wildfires. As of 2021, 128 million acres in the United States have the potential to be reforested. To fulfill half of this need, we have to more than double our current production

National labor shortages are cited as the largest barrier to expanded seedling production. Workforce limitations, including seasonal laborers, are a significant factor across America’s nursery infrastructure. Retiring institutional knowledge is also creating additional barriers for successful operations to continue at today’s demands.

Disease and insect infestation kill more trees annually than forest fires. When temps are high and tree sap is flowing, leaves and fruits are in full bloom. These are all attractants to tree-killing bugs. The recent epidemic of pine beetles is a prime example of the devastation a little bug can wreak on tree populations. Millions of trees were lost to the mountain pine beetle alone over the last 20 years.

Fire is an inevitable part of what makes a forest a forest. However, climate change and other human activity has been enabling even naturally caused fires to occur more frequently and intensely. Wildfires also burn the carbon stored in trees and soil, releasing large amounts of smoke, methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which impacts the overall global temperature.

Trees grown in a Vertical Hydroponic Farm can have a significant impact on revitalizing these forests and restoring the overall ecosystem.

Projected Water Scarcity Prompts Need for Farming Ingenuity

Projected Water Scarcity – The common refrain that fresh water is the next gold is ringing true as drastic changes in our climate are resulting in greater competition and a need for more efficient water uses, especially in the agricultural industry.

National Geographic points out that while the amount of fresh water on the planet has remained fairly constant over time — continually recycling through the atmosphere and back into our oceans, lakes and rivers — the global population has exploded in the last century. This means that competition for a clean supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing and sustaining life intensifies every year. There is only so much water to go around.

Essentially, when taking saltwater into account, only about .007 percent of the earth’s water supply is usable for the planet’s 6.8 billion (and counting) people, National Geographic says.

The vast majority of freshwater — about 70 percent by most estimates — is used for agriculture, and when you consider that feeding a planet of 9 billion people in 2050 will require an estimated 50 percent increase in agricultural production and a corresponding 15 percent increase in water withdrawals, the future becomes a lot clearer, according to World Bank.

Without proper governance, there is likely to be increased competition for water between sectors and an escalation of water crises of various kinds, triggering emergencies in a range of water-dependent sectors, according to a U.N. report.

Emerging technologies are quickly trying to find ways to get the most bang for each drop of water. Efficiencies have been identified, including vertical hydroponic farming, which drastically reduces the amount of water needed to grow crops. FarmBox Foods, a Colorado company that builds automated hydroponic farms inside repurposed shipping containers, has set its sights on creating a tangible shift in the approach to farming.

FarmBox Foods’ innovative, closed-watering system only uses 3-5 gallons of water per day and it does not contribute to groundwater contamination the way that traditional farming does. Furthermore, one farm is able to produce the same yield as 2 – 2.5 acres of farmland on an annual basis.

“Our container farms are built in such a way that it takes only a fraction of the amount of water to grow that same amount of produce,” said Rusty Walker, CEO of FarmBox Foods.

Climate change is projected to increase the number of water-stressed regions and exacerbate shortages in already water-stressed regions. It’s those regions that will realize the most benefit from vertical hydroponic farming and more efficient water usage in general.

An integrated view on water, the biosphere and environmental flows is necessary to devise sustainable agricultural and economic systems that will allow us to decelerate climate change, protect us from extremes and adapt to the unavoidable at the same time, the U.N. says.

The automated hydroponic farms use approximately 90 percent less water than traditional farms, and have a secondary benefit, as they can grow trees that contribute to the overall health of the environment by helping reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One container farm from FarmBox Foods can grow 35,000 tree saplings per year.

For more information, go to www.UNwater.org or www.FarmBoxFoods.com.