Public Act 25-152 includes provisions to increase the statewide municipal property farm tax exemption from $100,000 to $250,000 and permits municipalities to offer additional farm property tax exemptions of up to $250,000 on top of the $250,000 statewide exemption.

It also provides immunity to agritourism operators for any civil action for personal injury or property damage and exempts hoop houses and high tunnels from building permitting or construction standards. In addition, a section of the bill regulates the use of drones for agricultural purposes, establishes a manure management program to be administered by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DOAG), provides for the purchase and operations of shipping container farms to grow food for schools and food pantries, and mandates that anyone selling soil amendments must register annually with DOAG.

University City High School's growing agriculture program just grew some more. A shipping container fitted for hydroponics farming arrived at the school this week, bringing with it the potential for students to learn farming first-hand and grow their own food for lunch periods and businesses.

"They'll get to see firsthand how food is produced, starting from seed up to actual harvesting," said Pamela Lester, the teacher heading University City High's Agriculture and Sustainability Program.
The high school added an agriculture class during the 2023-2024 school year and saw a quick and rising interest from students.

At Winona Senior High School in Minnesota, sophomore Miriam Jackson manages six hydroponic Flex Farms that grow up to 200 pounds of lettuce each month. These fresh greens are served in school lunches for over 800 students, making school meals more nutritious and local.

Developed by Wisconsin-based Fork Farms, Flex Farms are indoor hydroponic systems designed for small spaces like schools. Jackson handles seed germination, water monitoring, and pH balancing for the crops, mostly leafy greens like iceberg lettuce. While harvest days require extra help, she manages most tasks independently, spending nearly 15 hours a week on the project.

Bringing nature into a classroom is one of the missions for an organization called New York Sun Works.

CBS News New York's Erica Lunsford visited a school in the Bronx and shows us how students are learning in a unique way.

The recent Indoor Ag-Conversations  panel brought together four seasoned voices from the container farming world. The session was moderated by Grant Anderson of Better Fresh Farms, a container farm operator, and featured three manufacturers as panelists: Matt Daniels (AmplifiedAg®), Glenn Behrman (CEA Advisors LLC), and Tripp Williamson (Vertical Crop Consultants).

Their goal? To offer a clear-eyed look at what’s working, what’s not, and where the industry goes from here.

What followed was one of the most honest, detailed discussions the container farming sector has seen in some time.

A group of Central Wyoming College (CWC) students have repurposed an 8-by-40-foot shipping container to successfully grow delicious vegetables and herbs without soil, sunshine and acres of space in a sustainable way, reports Cowboy State Daily.  These students are enrolled on a Regenerative Small-Scale Farming AAS degree. According to CWC, it is the first of its kind in Wyoming. 

“We’ve been fortunate to be able to bring this kind of technology to the area,” shares local food and agriculture instructor, Ethan Page. “I think this is one of two freight farms in the state, and the only one that’s kind of served, or has like an educational purpose,” he adds. 

BoomGrow can grow leafy greens, microgreens, edible flowers, herbs, and even mushrooms. From planting to harvest, it takes 35-38 days , which is faster than in open ground or a greenhouse.

At the same time, the growing process uses 95% less water, soil, and fuel than traditional methods.The modular vertical farm is a development of the Malaysian startup BoomGrow . It operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian country where the project was scaled up.

The farm was developed and assembled in Malaysia and delivered to Almaty, now the container is located on the territory of the Kazakh National Research Technical University named after K. I. Satpayev.

With sleeves rolled up and gloves on, young students at Redford Union Schools are growing leafy greens that show up later in the lunchroom as kids learn science, responsibility and even some healthy habits along the way.

Thanks to a new hydroponics program launched this year at both Hilbert and Beech elementary, the district's elementary STEAM classes are growing lettuce without soil – just water, light, curiosity and lots of smiles.

The project began in January with sixth graders planting the first crop of romaine lettuce. Since then, students in first through sixth grade have gotten involved in everything from monitoring the hydroponic system to harvesting.

The Narra District Jail (NDJ) has launched the “Gulayan ng Pag-Asa” Livelihood Program, a hydroponics-based farming initiative aimed at providing persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) with skills in sustainable agriculture.

HOPE BEHIND BARS. A Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) officer teaches a person deprived of liberty (PDL) how to do hydroponics-based farming in Palawan in this undated photo. Narra District Jail acting warden, Senior Jail Officer 2 Marlon Lolong, on Thursday (May 1, 2025) emphasized the program's potential to aid in the rehabilitation of inmates. (Photo courtesy of JO3 Joefrie Anglo, IO-BJMP Mimaropa)

It began with financial support and training in hydroponic farming techniques, enabling inmates to cultivate lettuce seedlings within the facility.

Research by the University of Pretoria (UP) is helping South African producers find new ways to grow white button mushrooms sustainably – including a project aimed at growing white button mushrooms in repurposed shipping containers.

“Many people think of mushrooms as a luxury item, without realising that they are a superfood packed with nutrients and represent a good alternative to meat products,” says Prof Lise Korsten, who leads mushroom studies in the Plant Pathology Research Group of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) and is co-director of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation / National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

In an era where ESG commitments are under scrutiny and accusations of greenwashing abound, Latvia-based Carbon Less Future (CLF) offers companies a radical alternative: grow your trees where people can see them. Literally.

CLF's glazed-walled container farms cultivate up to 33,600 saplings per cycle using vertical farming technology, right on corporate premises, in public plazas, or near schools. For companies aiming to meet EU Taxonomy and ESG requirements, the system offers visibility, compliance, and credibility.

The high school biology curriculum has changed significantly from what Charles Cooper said he was taught roughly 15 years ago. 

“It was pretty much plants, matter and fossils,” Cooper, who is on the verge of finishing the Mastery Charter School’s teaching residency program, told TAPinto Camden. “We never even expanded or talked about growing, farming, or anything of that sort.“

Cooper said a new classroom within Mastery High School of Camden that includes a hydroponics lab, propagation racks for breeding specimens and vertical hydroponic farms for growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid will be his workspace in the 2025-26 school year and will expand on the ‘that sort.’

Shipping containers that provide communities in war zones or desolate places with fresh and sustainable vegetables. Bee hotels in urban areas that provide up to date information on the state of biodiversity. With a practical solution, the winning initiatives of the Wageningen Entrepreneurship Grant make a difference in two of the most pressing current societal issues: biodiversity loss and food insecurity. An award of €25,000 each supports these young Wageningen entrepreneurs in growing the impact of their innovation.

During a well-attended finale of the Wageningen Entrepreneurship Grant on 21 May 2025, six young WUR entrepreneurs presented their initiative to the public and a jury consisting of experts in investment and agrifood.

What’s happening inside a lab at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville offers a resilient alternative to food supply issues, while educating students at the same time. The hydroponics lab, located in Glenview Commons, is a shining example of how new measures can be implemented to meet the need for sustainable, local food production. The student-run facility which opened in 2019, serves as a living classroom where they can explore innovative farming methods and contribute to the future of agriculture.

Students at a Bronx middle school in Claremont Village are learning about sustainability, gardening and science through a new classroom lab that uses a hydroponic, or water based, system to grow their own healthy produce.

Students, teachers, administrators and elected officials celebrated the new, state-of-the-art lab at Knowledge and Power Preparatory Academy (KAPPA) middle school with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a tour of the lettuce, herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers the students have already started growing.

Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ), a nonprofit working to combat food insecurity through youth-led urban farming, celebrated the launch of a new hydroponic farm at M.S. 053 in Far Rockaway on April 24, expanding its Far Rockaway Farm Hub and giving hundreds of students hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture and STEM education.

The 1,040-square-foot indoor farm is designed to produce more than 5,600 pounds of pesticide-free produce each year. More than 500 students will benefit from the fresh food grown on-site, with over 100 students annually participating directly in hands-on learning about sustainable agriculture, food justice, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The Auburn University College of Agriculture has significantly expanded its Transformation Garden and FoodU program with the integration of an advanced container farming suite from indoor agriculture leader, AmplifiedAg. This expansion enhances Auburn’s 16-acre Transformation Garden research and education facility by incorporating cutting-edge vertical farming systems to support multidisciplinary agricultural education, research, and food production initiatives.

The newly installed container farm infrastructure comprises three AmplifiedAg container farms: one AmpVPS (Vertical Propagation System) unit, two NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) container farms optimized for leafy green production, and a fourth unit repurposed as a food-safe cold storage facility. This comprehensive setup enables students to engage in real-world vertical farming systems for both plant propagation and full-cycle crop production.

Fresh research from The University of Queensland (UQ) could help apartment dwellers enjoy a backyard garden in their own flat and a year-round harvest of fruit and vegetables.

UQ School of Architecture, Design and Planning PhD student Thi Thanh Nhan An is bridging the gap between architecture and agriculture with prototype garden systems that integrate urban farming and apartment design.

Her prototype gardens are a greenhouse, a semi-greenhouse and a vertically integrated indoor farm designed to fit inside a city apartment or on a balcony.

Crucially, An’s project is already bearing fruit.

“I cannot forget the moment when I opened the door and smelt the basil and saw the colour of the purple radish or the green lettuce under the light,” said An, describing an early foray into her prototype greenhouse.

“Hopefully everyone in the city can have their own farming space in their living space in the future.”