The first Black-owned Freight Farm is opening in Hennepin County, Minnesota, helping to address food insecurity and inequality in agriculture in the rural area.
The Freight Farm will be led by farmer Marcus Carpenter and his organization, Route 1, a Minnesota-based resource for BIPOC emerging farmers. "Today is an exciting day," Carpenter said to KARE 11 about the arrival of the Freight Farm. "We are getting our very first Freight Farm."
Freight Farms is a Boston-based agriculture technology company and was the first to manufacture and sell "container farms," or hydroponic farming systems that fit inside large freight containers. This provides farmers with a modern solution to grow produce in confined spaces. Freight Farms supplies farmers worldwide with repurposed shipping containers, allowing them to grow food efficiently within a controlled environment, helping combat hunger and food insecurity one crop at a time.
"Not only does this freight farm give us the ability to grow over 200 pounds of fresh produce per week, but it also gives us the ability to bring in youth who may have not had an opportunity to experience agriculture," Carpenter explained.
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