Vertical Farming: Growing in small spaces

“Charleston SC-based Vertical Roots is a company with a novel approach to vertical farming. The firm…recycles reefer shipping containers into vertical farming ‘pods,’ with each unit capable of hosting 3,600 plants at any one time.

It’s an agile business model which is proving popular.

Developed by parent company Amplified Ag, Vertical Roots was established by CTO Don Taylor with the intention of creating local jobs, as well as addressing some of the challenges facing modern agriculture.

“Our strategy is to be as close to the point of consumption as possible and our architecture with the shipping containers allows us to literally plug into distribution centers,” explains Taylor.

“We can harvest out of a container direct into customer’s sorting facility, eliminating 100 percent of transportation. We provide just enough capacity to meet whatever demand is at the time, and as we continue to grow, we just add more capacity through more shipping containers.” ”