From Box to Bowl

Katlyn Foy (center) with continuing education students at James Sprunt Community College.

It’s cool and quiet in the narrow room, dark but for a glowing vertical matrix of red and blue LEDs. Their light merges to cast a purple glow on walls of leafy cabbage and collards. Katlyn Foy, an agricultural instructor at James Sprunt Community College, walks along the crops, motioning to the back of the room.

“The water tank is there, connected to the irrigation system, and back in the corner is what we call ‘the brain’ — that controls everything, from water flow and light to the nutrient mix,” she explains. “It’s constantly monitoring and adjusting. There are a lot of moving parts, and it all works together.”

(Left to right) Four County EMC CEO Don Gatton with Kristen Hole, Greg Sager and Katlyn Foy

Katlyn is in what looks like a 40-foot freight container on a back corner of James Sprunt's West Park Campus in Warsaw. From the outside, the container is fairly unassuming, aside from an eye-catching paint job declaring “Box to Bowl: Fresh greens growing inside.” On the inside, however, it’s a futuristic, hyper-efficient hydroponic farm, growing the equivalent of two acres of crops in half the time.

Four County EMC and James Sprunt, along with support from North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives, Duplin County and the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund, partnered on the container farm to offer students a hands-on introduction to agricultural and crop management.

“A large portion of our members work in the agriculture field, and we saw this partnership as an opportunity to introduce technology that could benefit an industry that is very important to eastern North Carolina,” said Greg Sager, vice president of member services at Burgaw-based Four County EMC.

This futuristic, hyper efficient hydroponic farm grows the equivalent of 2 acres of crops in half the time.

Container tech

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James Sprunt's farm is one of more than 600 similar containers designed by Freight Farms, growing crops in all manner of external conditions across five continents — from the Canadian wilderness to the Middle Eastern desert. The farms aren’t meant to replace traditional agriculture, but to offer fresh food access 365 days a year to areas that might not otherwise have it.

There’s also the educational component of such a system, which in the case of James Sprunt's farm, is engaging students with both hands-on agricultural experience and cutting-edge farm tech.

There are inherent benefits to hydroponic farming, or growing crops without soil, in a controlled environment like the James Sprunt container, explains Kara Gravinese, innovation and business development analyst for North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives.

Nutrients are automatically added to water as needed, and that water is recycled from grow beds as well as condensation from the container’s HVAC system. The container is designed to use around 5 gallons of water a day, or 99% less water than traditional agriculture.

“We’re still assessing the data, but in a high-humidity region like eastern North Carolina, we’re hopeful it will actually be ‘water positive,’ generating more water than it uses,” Kara says.

Depending on operating settings ranging from eco mode to performance mode, the container farm can produce a yield of crops in around 5 to 6 weeks, from seed to harvest.

A recent harvest yielded 330 pounds of produce, all of which is donated to local charities.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to investigate hydroponic technology, including how we can grow food with less resources like land and water, while making more efficient use of labor hours,” Kara says. “Students are also learning business management, gaining an understanding of the economics of running a financially viable farm, and learning how to analyze and adapt to data trends. Those are all valuable skill sets.”

Kara and her team are working with Four County EMC and James Sprunt to interpret data from the farm and find areas to optimize energy consumption and improve efficiencies, both for Katlyn and her students, and for Freight Farms units across the globe.

“Katlyn’s students are learning advanced technical skills for the management of hydroponic farms, and we’re learning right along with them,” Kara says.

Box benefits

The controlled nature of the farm presents opportunities, as well as its own set of challenges. Challenges largely relate to maintaining a clean environment without the use of any chemicals. The crops grow pesticide- and herbicide-free, and Katlyn keeps the floor and other components clean with a hydrogen peroxide mixture.

She also ensures anyone working or visiting the container makes cleanliness a priority. That includes taking care not to track in any outside soil, which could introduce the plants to disease or pests. Seeds are sorted before planting to ensure they’re free of outside organic matter or, worse, any sign of pests — like dreaded aphids.

“Thankfully we haven’t had a pest issue, but I have heard from some container farms that have had aphid infestations,” she says. Then again, she explains, controlling pests in a box can be a lot more straight-forward than in open cropland. “With aphids, you can close the container and raise the temperature to 120 degrees. That kills the insects, and the plants are fine.”

 

The container is also free of growing seasons, allowing students to experiment with a variety of crops year-round.

“In here we can grow whatever we want, when we want,” Katlyn says on a July afternoon. “Right now I’m growing collards and cabbage, and those are winter crops — I’d normally plant those in August in a greenhouse.”

This flexibility can be invaluable to local or regional restaurants, which may crave access to crops that are out of season or otherwise hard to come by. Kara points to one example of this kind of “premium product” being grown by a hydroponic farm in New Jersey.

“Oishii is a company growing a prized variety of Japanese strawberries in a hydroponic environment,” she says. “These berries are typically found in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, but they’re growing them right in Jersey City, year-round.”

During the fall semester, 90 students across several classes have been able to utilize the James Sprunt container farm for hands-on experience, gaining a better understanding of everything from starting seeds and transplanting, to promoting healthy growth through the right balance of nutrients. And at harvest time, it’s all hands on deck. A recent harvest yielded 330 pounds of produce, all of which is donated to local charities.

“This curriculum equips these students, who are the future of agriculture in our state, with the knowledge to adapt and pivot while remaining within the agricultural sector,” said Kristen Hole, innovative electrification specialist at Four County EMC.

Katlyn credits support from Four County EMC with making the project feasible, in turn better equipping local community college students for the future.

“Without the support of local cooperatives, students would not be able to learn about agriculture in the capacity that they are right now. I try to do what I can to get students set for the workforce, or to prepare them for university — your education is something no one can ever take from you,” she says. “Even if you don’t go into agriculture, it’s important to learn about and understand. Without it, the world wouldn’t work.”