USA - KANSAS: Leafy Green Farms: A Farm in a Box
May 6, 2025
Brad Fourby
Brad Fourby is not your average Pittsburg, Kansas farmer.
While he’s harvested hundreds of heads of lettuce and produce on his farm, he rarely does so under the Kansas sun or on a John Deere tractor.
Instead, this native Californian turned Kansas farmer spends his time growing produce inside his 320 square-foot indoor hydroponic farm, Leafy Green Farms.
But what exactly is hydroponic farming?
In simple terms, hydroponic farming is the process of growing crops with water-based nutrients rather than soil. Instead of planting crops out in a field, hydroponic farming utilizes a controlled environment approach to agriculture, meaning the environment in which the crops are grown is managed to optimize growth and resources in a setting where variables like temperature, humidity, and light can be controlled.
In the case of Leafy Green Farms, that controlled setting just so happens to be a shipping container.
Leafy Green Farms utilize a vertical approach to their hydroponic farming, growing rows of crops from floor to ceiling in upright racks or towers down the length of the shipping container.
“We start everything in seed pods, and from there, we’ll start placing them in the towers. We normally do 10 per tower,“ Brad Fourby said.
Each tower is roughly 6 inches in width with what’s called a wick running down the center, which is essentially a piece of cloth around the plant that helps retain moisture for the plant.
“We are 99% more water efficient than traditional. So we burn about two gallons of water a day,” Fourby said.
Water, as well as liquid-based nutrients, are dispersed at the top of the tower where it filters down to each plant for a more controlled and sustainable approach.
“There’s no waste because when {water} goes down, the plant takes what it needs,” Fourby said. “Everything else goes into a trough, back into the tank again, and gets recycled.”
Another advantage of a controlled environment is that crops are able to grow independently of the weather conditions.
“We grow year-round; it doesn’t matter what the climate is, we’re always growing,” Fourby said.
Leafy Green Farms also has no need for pesticides, relying on the safety of an enclosed container to protect plants rather than chemicals. In the case there is an infestation, the farm can simply drop the container’s internal temperature and freeze out pests.
“I’ll turn off the lights, crank up the AC, and turn off the ventilation, and we’ll freeze them out,” Fourby said.
The farm primarily grows lettuce and other leafy crops such as swiss chard and basil; crops that have been deemed to grow well under vertical conditions.
“We can’t grow tomatoes to save our lives or a pineapple,” Fourby said while laughing.
According to Fourby, the crops have about six weeks of growth in the vertical tower before they are harvested in one of the farm’s two weekly harvests for human consumption.
“We do 200 at a time, and normally these racks are all filled. We just rotate them through,” Fourby said. “Right now, all of our food goes to food pantries in Joplin, and we send some to the Wesley House here in town.”
Outreach
While Fourby started Leafy Green Farms four years ago as a business venture to produce local and affordable greens for the Pittsburg community, it since has evolved into a community outreach program, supplying schools with learning opportunities in agriculture.
“I thought I was going to be working as a farmer, selling my lettuce; that was my goal,” Fourby said. “Next thing you know, the schools are interested, and then you’re working with them.”
Shortly after establishing his first shipping container farm, Fourby was approached by a teacher in the local school district with an interest in making agriculture more available to high school students.
“We got a grant to help with the local schools of Southeast Kansas, and they call it a Farm Classroom,” Fourby said. “We take one of these, deliver it to their spot, get it all set up and hooked up, and the teachers come in to start teaching the classes. Then we act, for the next year or two, like the pool service guy that comes in at night on the weekend.”
With the vertical farm, high school students can learn hands-on what it takes to grow produce and gain proper food handling skills while creating a more food-secure school environment.
“The schools are loving it. We have about ten farms now,” Fourby said. “Next, I’m opening a farm in Fort Scott, but I’m doing it a different way.”
Fourby’s next project is currently in the works, and as a military veteran, he wanted to provide an opportunity for servicemen and women to connect back with agriculture through cultivating mushrooms in his newly acquired building in Fort Scott, Kansas.
“That building is the Veterans Foundation, and the mushroom business is just the first of what’s next to come,” Fourby said.
The goal is to provide a space and resources for those interested in farming mushrooms to learn the basics and be able to take it back to their own homes to start their own business. With the help of the foundation, veterans will also be assisted in distributing their produce through the Kansas City food distribution network.
To learn more about Leafy Green Farms and Brad Fourby, visit https://leafygreenfarms.org/.