There’s no better time than the present to get into container farming. Indoor hydroponic farms from Pure Greens are the wave of the future, and the industry is thriving. Everyone from school administrators to senior living facility chefs have discovered the benefits of an on-site container farm. Shipping container farms are portable, expandable and stackable, offering greater flexibility for your sustainable farming practices. They also grow plants in a clean, controlled environment without soil or pesticides. This results in a larger, tastier yield that you can harvest daily or weekly. Plus, they give you the opportunity to grow year-round in any climate and in areas you wouldn’t normally be able to.
20 Reasons to Start Container Farming in 2023
Need further proof that the time is now? This blog highlights 20 reasons you should start a container farm this year.
1. Be Your Own Boss
One of the main benefits of container farming is that you make the rules. You decide what you grow, and how you grow it. Starting a indoor farm can be a side hustle to make a little more money or it can become a new career. It’s really all up to you. Indoor farming is a rewarding activity that has a significant amount of depth. It teaches you something new every day, whether it be that
2. Container Farming Saves Water
Container farms use less water than traditional farming techniques. Traditional farming is responsible for 80% of all water usage in the United States. Growing a head of lettuce with traditional farming uses a whopping 3.5 gallons of water. But a head of lettuce grown on a container farm which only uses about 1/10th of a gallon of water total. So, every head of lettuce grown with a container farm saves more than three gallons of water. Every gallon of water saved helps the planet in a big way, helping prepare for future droughts and preserve the environment .
3. Create Your Perfect Lifestyle
Are you struggling with finding the right work/life balance? Indoor farming is the perfect solution. You’ve probably heard the saying “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” With indoor farming, you can turn your passion into a real, sustainable business.
We design our Pure Greens container farms to your specifications.4. Container Farming Provides Safer Food
Remember a few years ago when Chipotle had that E-coli outbreak? Or, how about the 2019 Romaine lettuce recall in California? Just because the food comes from a supermarket or a fast-food chain doesn’t make it safe. In fact, a quick google for “produce recalls” will show you exactly how unsafe some of the food you are being sold truly is. When you start farming indoors, you can be sure that you are providing safe food that won’t make people sick.
5. Support Your Local Community
Starting a container farm business is really starting a local food business. As a container farmer, your local community is your patron. You’ll sell your produce at farmers markets, local restaurants, and even local grocery stores that want to add fresh local food to their selections. Through this process, you will become a foundation for your local community as you provide them with fresh, nutritious food.
6. Container Farming Save Money on Taxes
Starting a business is tax-deductible. That means that you can write off or depreciate a portion of all the money you spend on your container farm business. You can also donate wholesome produce to charitable organizations in need, helping your community and yourself at the same time.
7. Fill a Missing Market Niche
Most produce is grown and sold seasonally, which is why cherries are only available for a very short time period. But when you start an indoor farm, you don’t have to worry about seasons or weather. That means that you can harvest crops that would normally be out of season, filling a niche in the existing food marketplace of your city.
8. Container Farming Helps People Eat Healthier
Locally grown food is fresher, more nutritious, and safer. When you sell local produce, you grow in your container farm, you are improving the health of your community, especially if you live in what’s known as a food desert. A food desert is an urban area where it can be difficult to buy affordable or good quality food. Food deserts happen for a variety of reasons from harsh climates that make it difficult to grow produce to communities not having good quality roads to allow in food trucks. With a container farm business, you can set up shop in a food desert and be the only supplier of quality affordable produce.
9. Join the Local Food Movement
According to Wikipedia, “Local food movements aim to connect food producers and consumers in the same geographic region, to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; or to affect the health, environment, community, or society of a particular place.” The term also includes social and supply chain characteristics, not just the geographic location of supplier and consumer. For example, local food initiatives often promote sustainable and organic farming practices, even though these aren’t necessarily related to geography. By starting a container farm, you join with the local food movement in your city.
10. Container Farming Conserves Energy
Container farming is WAY more energy efficient than traditional farming. A report by Urban Ag News showed a Swedish based company saved 48% more electricity than when compared with traditional farming. Additionally, using a closed-loop irrigation system like those found in most container farms saves around 50% more water than traditional farming. Indoor farms helps you save money and consume fewer resources while producing high-quality food.
11. Provide Jobs to the Community
When you start a container farm business, you’re going to need some help. Which means you will be providing jobs to your community. But more than that you will be creating a sustainable, beneficial job that helps bring safe, nutritious, healthy food to your community. That’s what we call paying it forward.
12. Stop Sitting All Day
Starting a container farm business will get you out from behind a desk. With container farming, you will be working in your container every day: Planting, harvesting, and monitoring your crops. Starting a container business is a great way to move from a sedentary lifestyle toward a more active one.
13. It Has Therapeutic Benefits
Gardening has long been renowned for its relaxing qualities but there are tangible therapeutic benefits to farming as well. Farming also reduces stress. An experiment published in the Journal of Health Psychology compared the relaxation benefits of reading and gardening and found that farming subjects experienced more relaxation than those that read.
14. Grow Food Across Generations
With a container farm, you can spread your love for farming to your parents, kids and even grandkids. A container farm business is perfect for anyone of any age who wants to learn more about growing food. Some container farm owners we know even set up camps to teach kids how to farm and earn a nice profit in the process! Plus, you can pass down your indoor farm to your kids just like any other business.
In a Pure Greens container farm, you can monitor your entire operation from your smartphone.15. Container Farming is Turnkey
With most business opportunities you must wait a long time to get started. For example, if you were to buy a McDonald’s franchise, you would need to wait for the permits, construction, hiring, and delivery of equipment like fryers and soda machines. But with a container farm, you can have everything set up and ready in just a few hours. No muss, no fuss.
16. Manage Crops from Your Phone
With regular farming you need to get out there and see what’s going on with things like pests, watering and monitoring pH levels. With a container farm, you can monitor everything from your smartphone via an app. It’s never been easier to access the important information you need to start and maintain a container farm.
17. Grow More Food in Less Space
Another reason to start container farming right now is that you can grow a lot of food in a little space. With an 8-foot-by-40-foot container farm you can harvest up to 400 pounds of herbs or leafy greens per month.
18. Grow Pesticide- and Herbicide-Free Crops
With traditional farming, you’ll need to use pesticides or herbicides to protect your crops from a variety of pests. Most farmers do this with pesticides or herbicides. Some of these pesticides are natural and not that harmful, while others like Roundup have been linked to cancer. With indoor farming, you can use all-natural pesticides, like Neem oil, salt sprays, and eucalyptus oil. Growing crops without harsh pesticides and herbicides is a great way to produce safer food for your community.
19. Grow Various Crops
With container farming, you are not limited to the crops that grow naturally in a location or crops that are seasonal. Conventional indoor farming allows you to grow a wide variety of crops based on what you want to grow, not other factors like soil conditions or weather patterns.
20. Experience Fast and Consistent Growth
Container farms can grow crops incredibly quickly. But it’s not just speed, container farming also allows you to grow crops consistently in areas where otherwise you would not be able to like areas with heavy winters or food deserts.
