2-11 FB Farmery 2

Yesterday we introduced yo to an innovative young man who’s trying to modernize farming. His name is Ben Greene and his operation called “The Farmery” seeks to innovate the growing and retailing of locally grown food, so that small farming will be able to compete with with large, industrial farms while maintaining environmentally friendly agricultural practices. The Farmery will be constructed from 6 low cost shipping containers, three stories high. Each container represents a “growing unit”, “retailing unit” or a “prep unit”. This allows the Farmery to be premanufactured in a factory type setting, reducing building costs and speeding construction time. Each growing unit has a two foot wide greenhouse structure attached where hydroponic and aquaponic crops are grown vertically in hanging sacks and rotated from one end of the growing unit to the opposite end. Here’s Ben: “I’m using these hanging bags filled with cocoanut fiber and there’s pouches in them with plants growing out, and we also have Sure-to-Grow which is like a felt hydroponic material.

Ben says his\ innovation is possible because of the Farmery's place at the intersection of trends in shipping container construction, locally grown food, organic food, high fuel prices, and vertical farming.