On the rainy Earth Day evening of April 22, 2015, Brad McNamara, co-founder and CEO, and Pat Joyce, distributor networks account representative, spoke at Williams College about their company, Freight Farms. McNamara has a background in agricultural and environmental studies, and Joyce has a background in food and restaurants in Boston. The goal of their operation is to “Grow Food Anywhere.” The company states: “Freight Farms is dedicated to creating a more sustainable and connected food system by providing the tools that enable fresh food production in any environment.”
How on Earth?
Co-founders Brad McNamara and John Friedman connected in 2009 with a common idea: to grow food in any environment. They began by looking in urban locations, specifically at rooftop gardens. Brad and John asked anyone they could to have a look at their roof, and they worked on sustainable designs for rooftop farms. But into their research, they realized that the average person could not afford a rooftop, much less the money to transform it into a self-sufficient, fully functioning farm. They realized that they would need to find a better option in order to empower people to produce local food.
Brad explained that one of the problems with growing local foods is having enough space and a good enough environment to grow enough food. The people want to focus on growing local food for the community, not on the difficulty of the system; plus, they do not have millions of dollars to spend.
The Beginning
So in comes Freight Farms, established by John and Brad in 2010. They began experimenting with ways to create a productive farm within a small space. In 2013, they managed to build it. Creating the frame was easy. The technology and how to keep plants alive was an obvious challenge. Using a frozen-foods shipping container, they build the first Freight Farm. Brad laughed and mentioned that it was kind of ironic that the vessel that used to transport frozen produce to the United States is now become a place to grow locally.
The first prototype was very difficult to use, Brad explained. There was so much technology that it would have been a major challenge for the average person. Brad and John wanted to make it “more than just a cool box.” They needed to bring their goal back into the production of the farm and get the food to the people. A restaurant in Boston became a huge supporter. They heard the co-founders’ idea and wanted to purchase one of the “farms.” Brad sold him one, but they had no clue how they were going to build it.
Fortunately, their initiative was accepted into Tech Stars, a company that funds and teaches about different technologies. Tech Stars agreed to help make the “Freight Farm” easier to use.
By 2014, Freight Farms had raised over a million dollars, which allowed them to increase production.
What is the Product Exactly?
The major product of Freight Farms recently has been the “Leafy Green Machine.” The Leafy Green Machine is manufactured in Massachusetts. It is a 40 by 8 by 9.5-foot container originally made for shipping frozen foods. The Leafy Green Machine grows food 365 days a year regardless of the outside environment. It can grow almost anything. One of the more exciting parts of the Machine is that the entire thing is connected to the cloud and therefore to your smartphone or laptop. It has mobile connectivity, monitoring, etc. One of the exciting facts for environmentalists is that the Leafy Green Machine uses 90 percent less water than traditional agriculture, only ten gallons of water a day for the whole container. It is also a very small space, but each container has enough space to grow 4,500 plants.
The company has recently moved into a new headquarters in South Boston, where they provide training sessions for people interested in having their own “Leafy Green Machine.” According to Brad, “It allows people to get their hands on a tool and decide what the outcome is going to be.” The focus of the organization is to grow food anywhere but to allow it also to be in the hands of the people who are eating it. To know that the food you are eating has touched only your hands is a big deal.
Who Grows with Them?
The freight farms have been purchased by wholesale distributors, restaurants, small businesses, hotels, and corporate and university campuses. Brad told us that he did not believe people or companies purchasing the farms needed any farming experience at all, just motivation.
In Connection to Williams
Our Executive Chef of Dining Services, Mark Thompson, attended and asked a few questions about how freight farming would work with the Williams College campus. According to Thompson, we have a tough growing season here because during the main harvest season students are not on campus. But, he seemed very interested in the idea of having a few of these “boxes” on campus to support our dining halls year-round, in order to have more local food.
Conclusion:
All of this being said, Brad did want to make it clear that their plans were not to replace small and medium size farms. Small farms are a lot of work, specifically those that are non-industrial forms of agriculture. But, Brad and much of the room agreed that local food is an important cause. He stated that with the “Leafy Green Machine” they hope to “make high quality, local food a staple of the culture.” Brad and John plan on taking the idea global in order to help more people worldwide.
By Caroline Beckmann ‘17
For more information on Freight Farms, please visit http://www.freightfarms.com.
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