Farm from a Box is a cleantech powered infrastructure for community-based local food production.

About

Farm from a Box is a cleantech powered infrastructure for community-based local food production. Built from a modified shipping container, our Smart Farm system enables people to quickly and efficiently jumpstart outdoor production of quality crops. Whether used to stimulate farm production and job creation in rural areas, modernize farming operations for more profitability, or increase local food access after a crises, our data-driven system has the technology needed to quickly grow and sustain a productive outdoor farm. We like to think of it as the "Swiss-Army-knife" of food independence. As a combined ag and digital infrastructure, Farm from a Box brings together the advanced technologies that were developed for modern, large scale farms to the small-scale community-level local producers. Our goal is to revolutionize local food production and enable communities around the world to grow their own nutritious food with clean technology. In doing so, we can shorten global supply chains, activate new agricultural value chains, and increase climate resilience in vulnerable regions. We currently have two core products: a 20ft model that supports anywhere between 2-4 acres of planted outdoor production, and a 40ft model that supports 10-acres. Powered by renewable energy, each unit comes pre-installed with all of the core components needed to start and maintain a sustainable crop production year after year. Drip irrigation helps conserve water and stabilize crops, while also extending the growing season; internal cold-storage helps keep crops fresher longer; and Wi-Fi connectivity improves information access turning the whole farm into a hotspot. Farmers can produce at a lower cost, reduce post-harvest food losses and reduce their CO2 emissions. It also comes with a data IOT system to improve operational efficiency, optimize energy and water use, and provide guidance on overall farm management, allowing you to monitor and control the system remotely. A significant advantage that we offer - is that Farm from a Box can grow any kind of crop, whether that is high-nutrient crops for consumption, or cash crops for market sales. Our system is designed with interchangeable components making it quickly, and easily adaptable to different climates and user needs. Commercially, Farm from a Box can strengthen values-based supply chains that enhance small and mid-scale farmers’ financial viability by capturing price premiums in the marketplace for the environmental and social benefits embedded in the products. Additionally, our digital infrastructure, allows 3rd party providers to integrate digitized financial services, crop insurance, weather forecasting and other value-add products. While Farm from a Box provides a very necessary infrastructural anchor for jumpstarting and stabilizing strong local food production- its greatest potential is in how we can use this anchor to create a global network of interconnected cleantech-powered smart farms that can enable local producers to compete on a global scale through regenerative farming.

Key Benefits

Farm from a Box is working to rejuvenate local and regional food systems, with cleantech powered regenerative agriculture that helps small and medium-scale enterprises to flourish in shorter, more sustainable food supply chains that are closer to home. This approach holds several key social, economic, and environmental benefits that help us shift from extraction and inequality to regeneration and inclusion. Small-scale farmers and small rural enterprises are the backbone of rural economies and national and regional food systems. Strengthening agricultural production and increasing digital access is a key factor in achieving economic transformation and job creation in rural areas. Farm from a Box works to provide the technology that increase the production and efficiencies of rural farming, while also providing jobs and income-earning opportunities. This can help curb the urban-flight of youth and reignite opportunities in agriculture, increase the skills and capacity of women farmers, and fortify rural economies. By digitizing the agricultural value chain, Farm from a Box can help improve market access and provide a platform for third-party players to build viable business and service delivery models to serve community-based farmers. It also helps shorten the supply chain between production and consumption, and help small scale producers meet the increasing consumer demand for local-grown food. From the environmental perspective, Farm from a Box has several key benefits. In order to effectively address climate change, we have to develop broad-based solutions that work in concert with each other. As a cleantech powered infrastructure for small scale regenerative farming, Farm from a Box helps enhance energy conservation while scaling up renewable energy solutions, it works to reduce costly food waste that happens in field, helps increase access to healthier, less-damaging food, it helps conserve natural resources, and works to rebuild the biodiversity in agricultural systems. The most important environmental benefit, however, is that Farm from a Box works to remove greenhouse gas emissions and restore carbon rich soils under our agricultural and degraded lands.

Applications

Farm from a Box is the “Swiss Army Knife” of sustainable farming— a multi-purpose toolkit adaptable to a wide range of applications. It can be used to revitalize local food hubs & supply chains by increasing production along the entire agricultural value chain. Farm from a Box is an ideal system to train and develop the next generation of farmers to produce nutritious food with clean technology. Our system encourages entrepreneurship by providing a platform for youth, women, veterans, and other underserved groups to gain the skill set and experience needed for a career in agriculture. Our system can provide locally grown farm-fresh ingredients for a variety of consumers, like restaurants, corporate offices, hospitals, health facilities, or retreat centers. Farm from a Box can help supplement school programs and increase healthy food access while improving students’ focus on learning and their health. It can bring the classroom outdoors and educate students on nutrition, STEM learning and vocational skills. Our turnkey infrastructure can be quickly deployed to jumpstart food production after a disaster or increase healthy food access to underserved populations. It can reduce ongoing costs of food distribution, increase nutrition and livelihood opportunities, and help rebuild self-reliance after crises.

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