Growing food in a shipping container?

AP Environmental Science students travelled down the prettiest dirt road to an unsuspecting farm tucked in the Woodstock woods. There they encountered Ferndean Farm where a small collective of farmers is working on a microscale toward solving the problem of food insecurity in our community. Madeline Raynolds introduced the concept of hydroponically growing greens using a high-tech Freight Farms shipping container system. Students assembled and installed new growing panels, transplanted nasturtiums, and cleaned the foam strips used as a growing medium. They weighed the pros and cons of using energy and water-intensive systems like this against the compact land-use and dense growing capacity that these panels offer. Biosecurity, food sovereignty, and resilience were all discussed. Thanks for hosting us, Ferndean!