Tag: Vertical Farming

Fighting Back Against Hunger and Improving Food Access

“The world is at a critical juncture.”

That’s the headline of an article about the state of food security and nutrition in the world. In painstaking detail, the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations uses the article to describe how the number of people affected by hunger globally increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It estimates that between 720 million and 811 million people faced hunger. If you go with the middle of the projected range — around 768 million — 118 million more people faced hunger in 2020 than in 2019. How does this happen and what’s being done about it?

The Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations says that unless bold actions are taken to accelerate progress, especially actions to address major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition and inequalities affecting access to food, hunger will not be eradicated by 2030, as the U.N. had hoped.

After remaining virtually unchanged from 2014 to 2019, the prevalence of undernourishment climbed to around 9.9 percent in 2020, from 8.4 percent a year earlier, the article says.

According to FoodBankNews.org, all of this activity is happening against a backdrop of heightened emphasis on nutrition from the USDA, which in mid-March released a report outlining its commitment to nutrition security (in addition to food security). The USDA noted the importance of nutrition in fighting diet-related disease, which is a leading cause of illness in the U.S., accounting for more than 600,000 deaths each year, or more than 40,000 each month.

Sadly, the pandemic continues to expose weaknesses in our food systems, especially when it comes to access. New farming practices, including controlled-environment agriculture, are increasingly being recognized as a potential solution to fill the gaps and avoid supply chain delays entirely. 

Strategically placing container farms in and around population centers could have a dramatic effect on providing a sustainable and secure source of nutrient-rich food. These farms can produce 200-300 pounds of fresh food weekly and help feed people in marginalized communities. They can also be used to help train the next generation of urban farmers and create jobs, providing ancillary benefits that can reverberate for years to come.

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?

  1. Equipping future generations with the ability to use science and technology to grow food for underserved populations.
  2. Feeding students fresh, nutrient-dense foods. 
  3. Reducing costs associated with purchasing transported foods while enabling schools to cheaply grow their own.
  4. Providing foods for students in need to take home with them so they will have quality food they grew themselves.
  5. 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