Growing up, perhaps you heard your mother frequently tell you to “eat your vegetables.” Parents often stress the importance of eating vegetables for healthy growth, better eyesight, and fewer issues with illness.
Vegetables are good for you, but there is a difference between canned vegetables and fresh farm vegetables. Although all grocery stores carry fresh produce of some kind, how fresh is it really? Most times you are eating produce shipped from across the map rather than locally sourced.
With a company like Freight Farms, you can change your life and the life of your community for the better. You can provide fresh, locally sourced produce no matter where you live. No matter the weather or the agricultural challenges you might face, Fresh Farms solves those issues. In other words, you can provide your community with the freshest produce possible.
The Truth About Store Bought Vegetables
When you visit your local grocery store, you can choose from canned, frozen, or fresh produce. Many people opt for canned produce because affordability is an issue. Those that don’t prefer fresh produce because they want to make sure they are eating as healthy as possible.
However, the produce you buy from the store may not be as fresh as you think. Vegetables begin to lose their nutritional value shortly after harvesting. For instance, vegetables such as lettuce can experience a loss of 15%-55% vitamin C within as little as a week after harvesting.
Farmer’s markets help solve the issue by providing the community with locally grown vegetables just after harvest. Therefore, the foods you buy from a farmer’s market hold a higher nutritional value than store-bought produce.
Sadly, vegetables lose their nutritional value during shipping. Although refrigeration can help slow the process, it does not stop it. Even more unfortunate is the fact that farmer’s markets do not exist everywhere.
The Midwest is a fortunate enough area to have access to farmer’s markets and fresh produce during certain seasons. What about the rest of the year? What about urban areas that do not have access to locally grown foods? Should they resort to eating foods that lose their nutritional value?
Freight Farms for Your Community
Freight Farms is a company that managed to find a solution for nutrient loss and agricultural challenges. Thanks to their innovative approach, you can grow and sell local produce no matter where you live. The company supplies shipping containers specially designed to make farming easier in locations where farming proves challenging.
When Brad McNamara and Jon Friedman initially founded Freight Farms in 2010, they focused on rooftop greenhouses. Eventually, they decided that to make their visions succeed, they needed something that would allow growing at a scalable rate. They implemented technologies into shipping containers, and the company quickly took off from there.
It is now possible to farm in areas where traditional farming methods are not possible. Essentially, the men offered a way for communities to enjoy nutrient-rich, locally grown food, which benefits the community. Many communities find themselves lacking locally sourced foods, particularly vegetables.
Using a unique hydroponics system and other technologies, you can grow a variety of foods. The container, which the company calls the Leafy Green Machine or LGM, provides the following benefits:
Seedling area
Each container has a TIG-welded workbench that allows you to control seedling growth while sitting or standing.
Vertical columns
The container has 256 vertical crop columns that support up to 4,500 growing sites.
Automation
Smart technology allows you to automate necessary functions for successfully growing using a series of sensors, cameras, and transmitted data.
Overhead tracks
Overhead tracks make it easy for you to move and position your vertical columns for customized growing.
LED Lighting
LED lighting provides seedlings with the light they need to grow and mature.
Irrigation
The LGM has an irrigation system that delivers nutrient-rich water to your seedlings and crops, and it uses approximately 90% less H2O than traditional farming.
Environmental control
Grow your crops no matter the weather or season thanks to the temperature and climate-controlled interior of the LGM By operating your own LGM to grow localized crops, you can offer your community affordable nutrient-rich vegetables.
Freight Farms for You
Should you choose to invest in an LGM from Freight Farms, you will quickly find it is beneficial for you, too. Should you choose to become a freight farmer, you will discover what exactly those benefits mean for you and your future. You might be surprised to experience what benefits you can enjoy.
Become Your Own Boss
Approximately 65% of Americans would rather get rid of their boss than receive a salary. More often than not, employees feel dissatisfied with their boss. What if you could be your own boss? Operating a freight farm allows you to be your own boss while also allowing you to give to your community.
Experience Balance
Another complaint people often have is that they lack a proper balance between work and personal life. Too many people have to work certain hours, so they miss out on important family events. Perhaps you can’t miss work to go to a child’s sporting event. Owning and operating an LGM allows you to balance your work and personal life better, giving you more time for family.
Enjoy Comfort
Most people who work a desk job complain of discomfort, dissatisfaction, and an overall feeling of boredom and depression. Working at a desk can lead to issues with back pain, too. Owning and operating an LGM means you can sit, stand, and move around. You can be as active as you wish while working with your crops, or you can sit and relax when necessary.
Absorb Yourself in Therapy
Working with nature has a therapeutic effect. By growing a sustainable supply of nutrient-rich vegetable, you are giving yourself therapeutic relief. Science often shows that something as simple as digging in the dirt or being around plants can reduce stress, depression, and anxiety.
Make Money
Enjoy growing a variety of vegetables for your community, or you can even choose to grow flowers or herbs using the LGM. Lettuce, leafy greens, herbs, roots, and flowers are all crops you can grow and sell in your LGM. Roots include:
- Beets
- Carrots
- Radishes
- Turnips
- Onions
The LGM supports more than 180 varieties of plants, which can yield a profit for you within your community.
Best LGM Uses
You can use the LGM in a variety of applications. You can use it as a standalone business that earns you money as a local farmer. You can also use it as an add-on for your current farming business. If you own and operate a restaurant or local grocery store, you may also find the LGM useful. Adding fresh ingredients grown by you can improve the quality of the products you sell.
The LGM could also prove beneficial for school. Educators can use the LGM to teach students about the importance of a sustainable future. They can also teach students about crop growth and harvesting. Schools can also use LGMs as a way of providing fresher ingredients for breakfast and lunches.
Future Predictions
The LGM is not without challenges. There are a few challenges that might arise with the integrity of the container and environmental control, but it is otherwise a great idea. The LGM could potentially benefit the future. Agriculture specialists and scientists often stress the fact that continued growth of the human population may cut into the world’s available food supply.
There are also complaints from some areas of the world from people who lack access to quality food. The LGM can solve those issues by increasing crop growth capabilities and ensuring the availability of fresh food in rural and urban areas. In other words, LGMs could improve food source outlooks for the future.
Overall
Overall, the LGM is an innovative design that you can use in several applications. It helps you solve issues with the lack of available quality foods in your community and allows you to make money while doing so. You can also save money with the LGM. You can use the LGM to grow between two and four tons of produce each year using less than five gallons of water a day.
Thanks to the use of soilless agriculture, the LGM is perhaps one of the most viable solutions for the future, too. The fact that it may just be the answer for future food availability and improved food quality in the future is amazing in and of itself. The fact that the company uses upcycled containers is even better because it adds an element of environmental cleanliness.
Grow in climates both hot and cold, wet or dry. With the LGM, you can grow crops anywhere in the world. Annual operation costs for the LGM are far less than that of a small far. A small farm may cost well over $60,000 a year for operation, which includes electricity, water usage, and the cost of growing supplies, but the LGM costs between $12,000 and $14,000 a year for operation, which makes growing your own fresh vegetables more affordable.
