Could container farm be the right choice?

Added on 21 March 2023

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Could container farm be the right choice?

Agritecture Designer recently introduced a new modeling feature: the ability to design container farms. This method of farming has many advantages for the right farmer and is a great way for smaller operations to get off the ground because of the (typically) lower CapEx involved in opening the farm.

Container farms, as the name suggests, are farms that are housed within repurposed metal shipping containers. These containers are retrofitted with equipment and technology to create a controlled environment for plants to grow. There are many benefits to container farming that make it an attractive alternative to vertical or greenhouse farming.

While vertical farms require less space than traditional farms, container farms require even less space. This makes them ideal for urban areas where land is scarce and expensive. One urban container farming company from Umeå, Sweden, Harvest, supports their local community with fresh greens like kale, arugula, and basil, among many other crops. Opening in 2020, they successfully survived the pandemic, which had disastrous consequences for many other businesses. They only operate one farm with an additional storefront, but their impact in their community cannot be minimized. They also sell their produce directly to restaurants.

This method of farming is highly flexible and customizable. With prefabricated containers, such as those available from Zipgrow, a member of Agritecture’s Partner Network, the timeline from conceptualizing your farm to actually executing your design is much shorter, which is a definite advantage over greenhouse or vertical farming facilities.