Container turned farm by LED high-tech vegetables more suction gold

Freight, a new agricultural technology company in Boston, Farm LED, which will be used as a farm for the delivery of frozen goods, and the use of high-tech assistance such as light bulbs, to grow a crop equivalent to a few acres of land in a limited space.

Vertical development with energy-saving technology

Walking into the interior of the Freight Farm container, it came to the comfort of the temperature, the moist air filled with the smell of the earth. Each of the 320 square feet of container is equipped with 256 vertical planting racks, the lettuce, vanilla and green leafy vegetables are enjoying a soft pink light.

In addition to the 128 LED lights, the container also has a circulating water system, a 8 gallon liquefied fertilizer tank, and a propane tank for supplying carbon dioxide, which requires only about 10 gallons of water a day and a total of 80 degrees. Under normal circumstances, vegetables from seed to harvest only 6 weeks. According to the Freight Farm data show that each container can be harvested annually on average 48568 sales of mini head lettuce, equivalent to the output of 2 acres of farmland.

Freight Farm since its establishment in 2010 has received a total investment of $5 million. According to the agricultural investment platform AgFunder report shows that in 2015 a total of $4 billion 600 million in food and agricultural science and technology start-ups received $2 billion 360 million in 2014, an increase of nearly 1 times. For many agricultural startups, the sale of products is a big problem, however, be quite different business model Freight Farm, the company has not set up commercial farms, but to provide technical infrastructure and tools needed to grow vegetables. Freight Farm containers can be temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide, such as a series of data back to the company's central server.

Because many of the buyers are new container farm farmer, Freight Farm offers buyers a 2 day training course, but also can use the internal online forum, to discuss crop selection and marketing concepts and other topics with other buyers.

Freight Farm has sold more than 60 containers so far, across the United States in 22 states and Canada, the province of Ontario, from the long winter to the hot Dezhou, there are 2. Freight Farm estimates this year is expected to sell 150 container farms, each priced at $80 thousand. To the surprise of Freight Farm, the container has gradually entered the traditional farm, many buyers to buy containers as an additional supplementary income when the crop growth season.

Now pick vegetables more than organic gold

Most people in the city of container farm unused space, sometimes even with the restaurant next door. Hydroponic vegetable industry Green Line Growers co-founder of Chuuk (Bobby Zuker) said: "the morning we planted, usually at noon has become the consumer dish salad. "

Buy lettuce, kale, spinach and vanilla Boston private chef Baez to Green Line Growers (MikeBetts) said, "container farms grow out of lettuce higher sweetness, sesame leaf wholesale market packaged products more flavor. "However, the price of fresh vegetables is also higher, GreenLineGrowers's Mini lettuce per $1.25, more expensive than the average organic store more than 1 times.

Since the container farm is not subject to geographical and climatic constraints, whether it can replace the traditional food to eat? Gotham Greens, co-founder and CEO Puri (Viraj Puri) said, unfortunately, can not replace the traditional agriculture and the indoor farm.

He said: "hydroponics and greenhouse agriculture is only applicable to some Vegetable & Fruit, like perishable green leafy vegetables, salad and vanilla, and tomato, cucumber and eggplant vine. It is not cost effective to grow grain, root vegetables and tropical fruits. "

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