Farming for NASA?

Growing crops in shipping containers, using closed-loop watering and very little electricity, is the mission of Freight Farms, founded in 2010 as a pioneer in containerized farming. The idea is to bring sustainable year-round food production closer to consumers, particularly in urban, arid, or other non-agricultural areas. It’s drawn great interest from the US space agency NASA, but for Dan Marino ’06, the name caught his eye first.

After working at Burton Snowboards and at a Yale University psychiatry lab, Marino was looking for startup companies. He discovered Freight Farms, determined that he would “do whatever it took to get a job there,” and within two weeks became part of mission control for a fleet of shipping containers outfitted to grow lettuce, herbs, and other greens.

He soon became head of operations, a job that offers “a taste of almost everything,” from overseeing farm-building teams and managing inventory to tending vendor relationships to coordinating logistics and transportation of the 40-foot steel boxes—called Leafy Green Machines—throughout North America. The firm has sold more than 85 LGMs to small urban farmers, restaurant suppliers, educational institutions such as Clark University, and eco-conscious companies like Google. He says, “The job keeps me on my toes; no two days are ever the same.”

Last year NASA awarded Freight Farms a small-business technology transfer grant to work alongside Clemson University in developing a “self-sustaining crop production unit” that could have applications in deep space as well as in commerce, disaster relief, the military, and remote living in harsh climates.

Shipping-container farming may ultimately help humans boldly go where no man has gone before, but for now, Marino notes, it’s tapping into a much older and earthlier agricultural model: growing food where it’s consumed. With its space-age technology, Freight Farms “is bringing a new concept to an old economy.” And Marino is using time-honored skills too. “What’s surprised me,” he says, “is how all business boils down to the same fundamental principle no matter the size of the company. Whether you are trying to build a farm, create a search engine, source cheaper aluminum, or get a haircut—it’s one individual coming to an agreement with another over a need or want.”

By supplying fresh, healthy produce in any environment, Leafy Green Machines may well find a niche in every corner of the globe. In fact, even the sky’s no limit. —Kathryn Gallien