SALAD DAYS: High-tech, efficient farming blossoms in downtown Raleigh.

• Author: Barkin, Dan
• Position: NCTREND >>> Agriculture

In one of the state's fastest-developing commercial areas, leafy greens bound for restaurants are growing in shipping containers because of an innovative agriculture technology company and a resourceful Raleigh entrepreneur. Boston-based Freight Farms sells the boxes, which are designed to efficiently grow food in almost any location with available power and water access.

Trevor Spear, who bought two 320-square-foot containers three years ago, operates them on a lot sandwiched between Raleighs red-hot Boylan Heights and Warehouse District neighborhoods, about three blocks east of the Raleigh Convention Center. One container's output is the equivalent of a 2.5-acre farm.

The climate-controlled 40-foot container, which costs about $ 149,000, is an insulated hydroponic farm, filled with racks of gourmet lettuce. Near the front, there's a nursery where young plants grow.

At three weeks, they're transplanted to 88 vertical panels with five channels, with as many as 50 plants per channel. Salanova, romaine, butterhead and other varieties continue to grow for several more weeks.

"Everything is automated, so there are sensors throughout that are monitoring our climate, our temperature, our humidity and our C02," says David Ridill, a Freight Farms account executive. A container requires about 5 gallons of water daily, which is about 99% less water than traditional farming, he adds.

Jon Friedman and Brad McNamara founded Freight Farms in 2010 with a focus on rooftop greenhouses. They later shifted to shipping containers, which can be outfitted in the same way and placed in a variety of places. The company was incorporated in 2013 and has raised more than $24 million from investors.

"It's the largest connected farm system in the world," says Rick Trenchard, the company's director of business development. "Leafy greens are optimal but we want to get into vine crops like tomatoes."

Freight Farms, with about 60 employees, has a network of more than 500 farms in 48 U.S. states and 38 countries. There are 600-plus trained farmers, who share billions of data points with the company's Boston office,

One of those farmers is Trevor Spear and his Nanue's Farm operation in downtown Raleigh. The New Bern native, who had been a building contractor, read a magazine article about Freight Farms, toured its facilities and received containers in December 2019. Then, COVID-19 happened.

"It was a train wreck," Spear says. "We started a home-delivery business, taking four...