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.

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.

While the rest of the Wyoming is fast asleep, there’s a secret world in Lander filled with thousands of green and growing things that are all wide awake, bathed in bright LED sunshine. 

The green and growing things are mostly stuff you’d eat in a salad — big Bibb lettuces and crinkly, crunchy kale. But there’s also mounds of emerald-green basil, whose leaves fill the air with the most enchanting aroma whenever a passerby happens to brush the leaves, no matter how gently. 

These green creatures live in a most unlikely space. An 80-by-40-foot shipping container that a casual visitor could easily mistake for a storage unit. But open the doors and an amazing George Jetson-style farm is revealed.

The concept of turning shipping containers into farms may seem futuristic, but it’s happening today in cities like New York, Tokyo, and London. Freight Farms, for example, has developed container-based farms capable of producing leafy greens and herbs year-round, regardless of weather conditions.

These farms rely on hydroponic systems, which use 90% less water than traditional methods, making them especially appealing in regions facing water scarcity.

Rees says: “A single 40ft container can produce as much food as an acre of traditional farmland, and a massive advantage of container farms is their scalability. In urban areas, where space is at a premium, shipping containers fit seamlessly.

Nour El-Naboulsi, an innovative farmer in Burlington, Vermont, grows tons of fresh produce all winter without using any soil or sunlight, according to Vermont Public Radio. 

How is that possible, you ask? With hydroponics, a well-proven technique for growing plants indoors using nutrient-rich water and specific climate controls. 

That might sound like something only a fancy laboratory can pull off, but El-Naboulsi built a fully operational growing space inside a retrofitted shipping container. 

We’re actively supporting Freight Farms customers to keep growing. We’re working with current and former Freight Farms customers to create immediate and long-term solutions for your farm operations.

We are offering live support to chat through solutions and multiple support package options to help you move forward. Help us help you: Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us.

Your feedback will be used to build/source solutions that are relevant to where you need the most support.

What we need is a critical mass of farmers who are interested to unlock certain solutions so please signify your interest by taking the survey before the deadline.

Nature’s Miracle Holding Inc. (OTCQB:NMHI) (“Nature’s Miracle” or the “Company”), a leader in vertical farming technology, announced that the Company has entered into an agreement to purchase five EV trucks with ZO Motors North America, LLC (“ZO Motors”). This purchase is expected to be fulfilled by the 2nd quarter of 2025 and will be financed by the State of California electric vehicle rebate program.

Nature’s Miracle will modify these EVs into Mobile Vertical Farming truck where micro green and herbs can be grown inside the trucks. The EV-based Mobil Vertical Farm may also qualify for USDA subsidy and financing as well. Nature’s Miracle is expected to receive up to 100 of these EVs by the end of 2025.

Our global food systems are under siege, with climate change, natural disasters disrupting supply chains, and conflicts affecting agriculture in vulnerable regions.

Add to that a booming population—set to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050—and the math becomes startling. Experts predict we’ll need 70% more food to sustain humanity.

But, here’s the problem – soil quality is deteriorating fast, and we’re on track to lose most of the fertile ground we rely on. Traditional farming methods, while vital, seem ill-equipped to meet the challenge alone.

Urban vertical farming has emerged as an innovative solution – by growing crops in stacked layers within highly controlled environments, these systems use less land, water, and pesticides – with shipping containers offering a sustainable, space-efficient answer to the global food crisis.

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.

I am a 3rd generation farmer so farming is in my blood. After college, I began working in the agricultural chemical industry in row crops. Here I learned what it takes to feed a nation and the logistics of it all. This is where my journey began but not until 2019 while I was in the Bahamas helping rebuild after Hurricane Dorian that I realized what my path would be.

I have held every kind of sales position imaginable so I knew I was just looking for the right product to put my knowledge, skills, and abilities behind to make it a success. This is when I began looking into hydroponics farming and more specifically Controlled Environment Agriculture(CEA). We are located in Charleston, SC which provides long growing seasons but unfortunately, land close enough to cities to sustain a profitable business is just unaffordable.

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.

A second hydroponic container farm is now fully operational and growing food for Red Deer Food Bank's clients.

The hydroponic sea can was reconfigured to grow a wider selection of vegetables and since January it has produced lettuce, Swiss chard, kale and bok choy. 

"We really do have a variety of fresh produce items that are available each and every week now, and we're just getting more and more," said executive director Mitch Thomson.

"We've had huge uptake. For people with different birth origins, they've been really excited about this big, beautiful bok choy we've been producing."

The food bank now has four hydroponic systems to grow produce in two indoor growing areas and two container farms. Food was also grown in its outdoor green house during the winter where recently spring crops were planted. 

The farm, which officially launched Thursday, will operate out of a converted shipping container outside ISU’s Office of Sustainability on School Street. The 320-square-foot unit is equipped with hydroponic system and LED lighting to grow the equivalent of 1-2 acres of traditional field production with a fraction of the water required to grow up to 4,600 plants.

Taco Tuesdays at Illinois State University are about to get fresher as a new Vertical Farm prepares to grow cilantro for dining services.

Professor of Agriculture David Kopsell gives a tour of ISU's new Vertical Farm. The converted shipping container is expected to produce 50 pounds of cilantro per week for campus dining services.

When it comes to making the most of small spaces, owners of tiny homes would be impressed with what Illinois State University (ISU) can do with its modified shipping container farm.

In its new 320-square-foot vertical farm, ISU will be able to produce as many herbs annually as it could in 2 to 4 acres in an outdoor field.

It all started in 2019 when a group of ISU students in the Innovative Consulting Community (ICC) approached horticulture professor David Kopsell about growing a garden for their entrepreneurial project. He explained how hard that would be during an academic school year and offered another alternative — a Freight Farm container hydroponic system.

“I had heard about Freight Farm since 2013 when some of my colleagues started talking about them,” said Kopsell. Through much collaboration, that idea germinated and grew to the point it will be ready to start growing leafy greens this summer.”

The morning sun casts long shadows over the fields as farmers swiftly load crates of freshly harvested produce onto a waiting distribution truck. The scent of damp earth and ripened vegetables fills the crisp Minnesota air. A rhythmic chorus of voices calls out orders as hands pass boxes from one to another, each filled with vibrant greens and fragrant herbs. The truck’s reverse alarm beeps steadily, a signal of movement and progress. 

Standing at a distance, Marcus Carpenter watches with quiet satisfaction. His dream, Route1 — born from a time of crisis and a deep-rooted passion for agriculture — has manifested before his eyes. The food will soon be on its way to those who need it most, carrying a message of resilience and empowerment.

Our global food systems are under siege, with climate change, natural disasters disrupting supply chains, and conflicts affecting agriculture in vulnerable regions. Add to that a booming population—set to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050—and the math becomes startling. Experts predict we’ll need 70 per cent more food to sustain humanity. 

But, here’s the problem – soil quality is deteriorating fast, and we’re on track to lose most of the fertile ground we rely on. Traditional farming methods, while vital, seem ill-equipped to meet the challenge alone.

Urban vertical farming has emerged as an innovative solution. By growing crops in stacked layers within highly controlled environments, these systems use less land, water, and pesticides, with shipping containers offering a sustainable, space-efficient answer to the global food crisis.

The University of Evansville in Indiana is launching We Grow Aces!, a new initiative that brings together education, sustainability, and community engagement to provide access to extraordinary experiential learning, while addressing food insecurity and workforce development.

The program, funded through the Eli Lilly Endowment's Indiana Youth Programs on Campus grant, will make possible the purchase of a Pure Produce Container, a vertical garden system jointly developed by anu and eko Solutions, housed in an up-cycled shipping container capable of producing 3,920 plants per 40-day cycle, or several tons of vegetables annually.