5 Places Educators Should Use Vertical Farms

Written By Jackie Greene

Vice President of Business Development

5 Places Educators Should Use Vertical Farms

These days, we don’t often know where our food comes from. Most produce travels thousands of miles to get on your plate and loses most of its nutritional value along the way. Reconnecting to our food and how it’s grown improves our health and wellness, both physically and mentally. This is especially true for children and people living in urban food deserts.

Vertical farms are the agricultural model of the future. They are the most efficient, space-saving way to grow food, indoors or out. At Copiana, we bring our aeroponic tower farms to you. Even better, we do all the work: installing, managing, and harvesting your farm. Our towers are sustainable, too! They use no soil and 90 percent less water than traditional farming.

Our team will help you turn a few square feet of available space into a modern aeroponic farm. Here are five places educators should consider growing the learning environment by partnering with Copiana.

 

Schools

Studies have found a positive relationship between school gardens and higher test scores. Whether you set up three towers in your classroom or you have space for a whole greenhouse, your students will learn about the aeroponic growing process in a hands-on way.

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Photo Credit: Future Growing LLC

Your in-class farm isn’t just for show, either! Students can add fresh greens to their lunch and learn the importance of healthy eating. Your cafeteria can make use of our nutritious harvests.

Farming gets students out of the classroom and provides a healthy break in their day while facilitating hands-on learning.

At Thomasville Heights Elementary School, students learn how to mitigate food insecurity through urban farming. They develop business skills by running farm stands throughout the school year and donating produce to urban food pantries. Farming, composting, and serving the community are part of the curriculum. Teens For Food Justice, an organization that brings hydroponic farms to schools in low-income neighborhoods, found that 95 percent of students in the program saw themselves as a leader who could advocate for food justice. With Copiana towers on campus, students will learn to appreciate healthy produce and a healthy community.

 

Museums

The joy of growing food isn’t just for children! People of all ages can appreciate this interactive display in your museum lobby or courtyard (even your parking lot)! Beyond scientific and agricultural education, vertical farms are great for fundraising events as visual attractions. Our team can harvest and give out produce as thank-you gifts to donors, which can then be replanted. Fresh greens are a gift that keeps on giving!

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We can help you design and install an educational greenhouse that visitors can walk through to learn about alternative farming solutions. If your museum or gallery has a cafe, a tower farm can supplement the kitchen with fresh produce harvested at its peak. Or, for a benefit party, freshly picked mint, sage, and basil could top off any number of cocktails.

 

Zoos

Growing fresh produce at your zoo is a great way to feed visitors and animals alike. Everything your farm grows on-site is less food you need to have shipped — and a single Copiana tower can produce more than 75 pounds of produce each year. Your tower farm could even be part of an interactive exhibit in which visitors get to use the harvested food to feed your animals.

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Our farms are also a visual opportunity to teach visitors about the importance of environmental and agricultural initiatives that save the planet and the animals that inhabit it. Vertical farming is the most sustainable, energy-efficient way to grow food in urban areas.

 

Aquariums

Produce from a vertical farm for your aquarium could supplement salads in your cafe or help nourish your manatees.

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Our tower farms also make an excellent educational exhibit that demonstrates how water nourishes both plant and animal life. You’ll have an engaging interactive exhibit for very little capital investment, and we’ll do all the maintenance!

 

Farms

Monoculture farming isn’t sustainable. Topsoil, which is essential for traditional agriculture, could be depleted world-wide in just 60 years.

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Ninety-five percent of our food is currently grown in soil, but that needs to change — and fast — to maintain the global food supply. Educational demonstrations can show farmers the viability of alternative farming techniques and help to make the shift to a hyperlocal, sustainable food chain.

 

Vertical farming works for all types of fruits and vegetables—anything that grows above ground. This means lots of greens and herbs, but also tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Copiana tower farms can grow indoor or outdoor all year long. We make introducing green space to urban areas effortless. The towers allow us to provide our plants with an ideal growth environment, which means they grow faster and more plentiful in a tenth of the space a rooftop garden would need. Weather, pests, and other irritants are a non-issue.

Ready to grow your educational offerings with an interactive, engaging amenity with tangible, edible benefits? Contact us to learn more about how a customized aeroponic tower farm can work for you.


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