Tag: indoor garden

Transforming a Neighborhood with an Indoor Garden

What if traditional community gardens were expanded into indoor spaces, eliminating seasonal barriers from the equation?

Imagine for a moment having a weekly farmers’ market in your community throughout the entire year.

Most can only dream of such a scenario, as typical community gardens take root in May and close for the season in October (depending on where you live). Additionally, demand for space is persistently high and waiting lists can be years long. But what if the community garden was expanded into indoor spaces, eliminating seasonal barriers from the equation?

Residential community developers — as well as those who serve on boards that oversee the neighborhoods — know that acreage is at a premium, and dedicating enough space for a traditional farm can be a challenge.

But what if the farm took up only 320-square-feet of space?  

If you’ve ever considered bringing indoor growing to your community, read on. A controlled-climate container farm could be what you’ve been looking for.

Automated container farms can be placed in urban areas, close to consumers, meaning produce can be delivered quickly, thereby reducing the carbon footprint associated with food transport and increasing accessibility to fresh, locally grown produce.

Accessibility improves the diets and overall health of property owners, and because it’s protected inside, the produce is grown without the use of harmful pesticides.

Container farms use less water and energy than traditional farms. They can operate year-round, regardless of weather conditions, by using efficient LED lighting and controlled environments to optimize growing conditions. This can result in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and water usage when compared to traditional farming methods. To take it a step further, tree seedlings can also be started in Vertical Hydroponic Farms made by FarmBox Foods and planted in the community later on, providing a full, get-your-hands-dirty experience for residents to play a part in bettering their subdivision.

Container farms can also provide educational opportunities for children and adults in the community. They can learn about sustainable farming practices, the benefits of locally grown produce, and how to grow their own food. The farms can create jobs in the community, and provide opportunities for entrepreneurship and small business development. They can also provide a new source of revenue for local farmers.

Aside from the aforementioned, a farm that operates year-round is a differentiator for housing developers who want to stand out from the rest. It shows a willingness to think critically about infrastructure that bolsters a neighborhood’s status, and it can be done for relatively little upfront cost. The farms can also be wrapped with a high-resolution design that makes it fit in with its surroundings.

Given the lengthy lifespan of container farms — 25 years or more — it’s an amenity that can become a community gathering place for decades to come.

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.

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