groundbreaker
movers & shakers
When there is nowhere else to look but up,
Freight Farms has a vertical vision for the future
of growing. Freight Farms manufactures high-
volume crop production units made from up-
cycled freight containers. Lacey Macri sat down
with Andrew McCue to find out more.
46 Plympton St., Floor 2, Boston, MA 02118
1-877-687-4326
7 Years in Business
BY LACEY MACRI
WWW
freightfarms.com
A
s Earth’s natural resources diminish and the
population continues to grow, farmers are forced to
find ways to bring more food to the table. The demand
for more food, especially more fresh food, is steadily
increasing as consumers are beginning to be more health
conscious. What has caused this to happen? It’s most likely
a result of several influences apart from population growth
alone. Health and wellness advocates around the globe
have found their voice. Statistics have driven these groups
to establish and promote the awareness and reality of the
foods we eat, where they come from, what their effects
are on our bodies, and how to live a healthier lifestyle.
Although vertical farming poses some challenges to
scaling for the hobby gardener, there are some easy ways
to start up, as well as many high-quality and valuable
investments available as operations become more serious.
One of these options has been brought to vertical farmers
around the world by a company called Freight Farms.
DEFINING VERTICAL FARMING
There are different ways to customize and tailor a vertical
farm to your circumstances, however, I will use the Freight
Farms model as this article’s basis to understanding
vertical farming. Andrew McCue, the farm systems expert
at Freight Farms, describes vertical farming as “either
the horizontal plane of a typical farmer’s field tilted into
the vertical plane to form a growing wall, or stacks of
horizontal growing areas on top of each other to create
a farm tower of sorts.” This unique view was brought
to the surface by Columbia professor Emeritus Dickson
Despommier in a book he released in 2011, titled The
Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century.
One of the keys to vertical farming includes utilizing a
controlled environment to maintain optimal input levels
by using sensors to constantly monitor these parameters.
The Freight Farms system is a completely controlled
environment that has been designed and built inside a
40-foot shipping cargo container, and many of its functions
are controlled by automation.
Inside a close to fully automated vertical farm system
like Freight Farms’ Leafy Green Machine (LGM), there
is everything farmers need to take them from seedling
through harvest. There is a seedling station at the front
of the container where up to 360 seeds can be sewed
beneath LED lights that have be en built into the infra-
structure of the underside of the counter. The length of
the container has four rows of crop columns on each side
that house the mature plants after moving them from
the seedling station. Although it is difficult to describe
the LGM in words, McCue says Freight Farms has heard
many people compare the inside to a “nightclub when the
grow lights are on due to the vibrant pink hue they give to
the whole farm. As you can imagine, the music from our
Bluetooth-connected speakers only adds to this impres-
sion.” The space between the four rows of crop columns
serves as an aisle for the farmer to walk down so they
can be hands-on at any part of their farm, including the
main water reservoir where the nutrient-rich solution is
blended and housed at the back.
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groundbreakers