Our conclusion is that the consumer can get both a hyper-local and superior product from a container farm. However, it will be approximately 10 times more costly to grow and deliver. Unless the industry can change the consumer mindset to pay the significant differential (much like what Starbucks did to the brewed coffee market), container farming is likely to remain a niche industry.

Our research concludes that today’s generation would like to buy produce with the following attributes: competitively priced; locally grown; tastes fresh and is healthy; available at same or near by location where other shopping is currently done say - “one-stop shopping”; and year-round availability.

If conventional and container farming are on opposite sides of the spectrum in price versus quality, what alternative forms of growing can meet the demand of today’s generation?

Based on the research done by our experts, greenhouse or urban farm growing, or a combination of the two, can get farmers close to meeting the needs of today’s people. Efficient deployment of further technology and capital into each of these growing structures will allow the farms to get ever closer to fulfilling consumer demands.