Farmer Chris Pacheco prides himself on growing food and feeding people, but at his farm there are no green fields or hoop houses cultivated with rows of vegetables.
Instead, his growhouses are climate-controlled, commercial shipping containers where he produces about 1,000 pounds of mushrooms per week that are sold across the state at farmers markets and restaurants.
On Monday, Pacheco, owner of Seacoast Mushrooms, emphasized that indoor growing, especially for mushrooms, requires high amounts of energy to control the temperature and humidity.
"When mushrooms grow, it's an exothermic process. They give up a lot of heat. So one of our biggest challenges is actually using electricity for cooling," he said. "[In the summer], it's about $4,000 a month."
Read more at ctexaminer.com