Making Farming Cool
An article in EcoWatch, a sustainability and environmental news website, describes a method in which food is grown in shipping containers. Two guys, Jon Friedman and Brad McNamara, created a startup, Freight Farms, to sell insulated shipping containers that have been converted into what they call “Leafy Green Machines.” These machines are ‘“outfitted with vertical hydroponics, high efficiency LED lights and an automated climate control system”’ that is connected to the company’s network through Wi-Fi. According to a quote in the article by McNamara, ‘“All of our farmers use our farm hand mobile app to monitor their farms 24/7. They can set alerts. They can set alarms.”’ Freight Farms sells the shipping container farms for around $76,000. These containers are also said to have an estimated annual operating cost of around $13,000 a year.
At these prices, it is hard to see how these shipping container farms will have a significant impact on urban agriculture. It is an innovative way to grow food and significantly cheaper than installing rooftop greenhouses, which can cost several million dollars to setup. However, it does not seem like something that can help poor people living in food deserts. However, it could be a creative way to promote a new kind of farming amongst young people in cities. The shipping container farms makes farming kind of cool.
