Introduction:
This is a case study of Freight Farms, an SME-sized business from the agriculture industry.
With food insecurity rising and global temperatures going up, two graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Design wanted to find a way to grow food in places that aren't traditional farms, starting with rooftop gardens in Boston.
Their goal was to improve local food access and create a model that anyone could use to grow food anywhere in the world. With some seed funding, they launched a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Co-founder and current president John Freeman and co-founder Brad McNamara came up with the smart idea of turning shipping containers into vertical hydroponic farms.
These farms use sensors to keep track of pH levels, nutrients, light, temperature, air, and soil moisture, while cameras check how the plants are growing. Since shipping containers are easy to find and move, and they can be set up in a controlled environment, these farms can be delivered and installed almost anywhere.
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Challenges in Container Farming
Turning a big idea into a successful business can be hard for any new company. Freight Farms saw the potential of container farming from the start.
Their first product, the Leafy Green Machine, launched in 2013, had a climate-controlled seeding area and a main growing space with vertical columns for different leafy vegetables.
These container farms used energy-efficient LEDs, required little energy, and recycled water, making them very resource-friendly. They could produce up to four tonnes of food each year.
Even though they had well-known customers, Freight Farms wanted to make their farms more efficient and grow a wider variety of crops.
This would help them reach more customers and expand their business beyond the US, especially with schools and community organizations. To do this, they started making pre-configured farms that customers could easily set up, making them a safe investment.
In recent years, Freight Farms focused on improving the design and technology of their container farms to show they could grow food anywhere.
As supply chain manager Meaghan Holmes explains, they wanted to increase yields, which can be tough because some crops are hard to grow, especially with changing weather.
"One of our goals — and our farmers’ goals — is to make the most of small spaces by growing as much as possible," says Holmes.
They also needed better monitoring, which meant putting more effort into IoT and creating a new camera with a wider view. Customers wanted to check on their container farms from afar, so they developed an app for easy access.
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Innovative Solutions for Container Farming with Raspberry Pi
Freight Farms has recently introduced its flagship model, the Greenery S, powered by the Raspberry Pi 4. This new container farm not only uses the advanced Raspberry Pi but also features a custom camera unit.
Before this, they relied on standard security cameras to keep an eye on the plants. Jakes Felser explained that these cameras had drawbacks such as being difficult to put up, missing quality, and needing a broad enough field of view to fit within the farm's walls.
To address these issues, Felser and his team developed their own camera. They needed a camera that was small enough to fit within the farm’s panels but still met high performance standards.
The Raspberry Pi provides the compact size that Freight Farms requires in the computers connecting to these high-quality cameras.
With these new cameras, the farm is now more reliable. According to Holmes, the app allows growers to quickly spot any issues.
It provides high-quality images that make it easy to see problems like yellowing leaves, helping growers adjust the nutrient supply or change environmental factors like temperature and humidity right away.
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Advantages of Choosing Raspberry Pi for Container Farms
By the time Freight Farms had successfully completed its crowdfunding, Raspberry Pi was already making waves in the tech world. Known for its reliability among engineers and computer technicians, it became the clear choice for building Freight Farms' "turnkey" growing containers.
CTO Jake Felser shares why they chose Raspberry Pi: “It offers ease of development, open-source traceability, and driver availability at an unbeatable cost for the performance.” Along with this, Raspberry Pi also provides a stable supply chain and a large support community.
Felser adds, “We explored other microcontroller options and single-board computers, but nothing matched the performance at this price point.”
Meaghan Holmes, who works closely with the engineering and manufacturing team, often orders essential items like Raspberry Pi units, sensors, and lights to help measure and monitor plant growth.
She appreciates Raspberry Pi for its reliability and user-friendliness, noting that it’s widely recognized, which is beneficial since many of the company’s engineers are already familiar with it.
For a crucial business component, Holmes emphasizes, “You wouldn’t want something super-obscure,” highlighting that Raspberry Pi has “a really high measure of success in terms of support.”
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Impressive Results with Greenery S
Freight Farms' Raspberry Pi-powered Greenery S container farms offer some of the most productive growing environments available, with a 30% increase in yield over the original Leafy Green Machine.
Each new customer relationship begins with a detailed onboarding process that evaluates potential sites for enough electrical power, solid plumbing, and water availability.
Non-farmers have found the Freight Farms concept appealing due to their ease of maintenance, which includes particular "recipes" for growing each commodity and access to a dedicated support team via email or phone.
This includes people who invest in a single container farm as well as leisure destinations where restaurants aim to sell fresh, locally farmed produce despite insufficient agricultural experience.
Freight Farms takes pride in working with community kitchens, food banks, and non-profit organizations like Lotus House in Miami, which supports women and children facing homelessness.
Core crops planted in container farms include lettuces, leafy greens such as kale and chard, herbs, beans, and root vegetables. Some customers have even started experimenting with berries and edible flowers.
Today, there are over 200 Freight Farms operating successfully in more than 50 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted for some remote islands their reliance on imports not only for non-essential goods but also for food.
As Meaghan Holmes points out, many of Freight Farms' customers are in island nations that previously depended on regular shipments to provide food staples that could not be grown locally.
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Source: “Freight Farms”. https://www.raspberrypi.com/success-stories/freight-farms/. Raspberry Pi, Accessed 30 September 2024.
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Conclusion:
Freight Farms is changing how we produce food. By using Raspberry Pi technology in their container farms, they have found a smart and efficient way to grow fresh food in many places.
This innovation helps tackle the rising problem of food insecurity and gives communities a chance to grow their own food.
With better yields, easy management, and the ability to grow different crops, Freight Farms makes it simple for anyone to farm, even if they have no experience.
As they keep expanding around the world, it's clear that their idea of providing local food is becoming a reality, helping to feed communities everywhere.
