By Andrew Soliman
A new kind of farm has sprouted at Cal Poly Pomona — one that grows upward and indoors.
The first-ever vertical farming facility on campus is housed in a high-tech container built by Freight Farms that was donated to CPP through a partnership with the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Southern California Edison (SCE). The project brings hands-on research and sustainable food production together in one compact, climate-controlled system.
Inside the 8 by 40-foot shipping container, that can hold up to can hold up to 8,800 plants, rows of floor-to-ceiling LED-lit panels nurture leafy greens and herbs — lettuce varieties, Thai and Italian basil, mint, thyme, baby bok choy, mizuna and tatsoi — grown hydroponically with precision-controlled water and nutrient delivery. The system uses about 5 gallons of water a day and can produce 2 to 6 tons of food annually, the equivalent of annual production on 2 acres of farmland, using a fraction of the water required daily for traditional farming!