Farms in the urban jungle

Silverstein works as a crop specialist for Freight Farms, a company that creates what it calls Leafy Green Machines—essentially shipping containers decked out with enough hydroponics equipment and tools to produce two to four tons of produce a year, in any climate or location. “You can put it in a parking lot on concrete or pavement, so you don’t need good soil,” Silverstein says. That’s something most urban areas are short on.

The containers produce primarily—wait for it—leafy greens, like lettuce and Swiss chard, because they’re quick to grow and can be nestled closely together.

And while one of the main selling points is being able to grow climate-sensitive plants in an often cold, snowy place like Boston, Silverstein has her eyes set on a prize further out—much further out: Freight Farms has worked with NASA to see how Leafy Green Machines could go into space. “We have looked at how to speed up the [plants’] grow time and looked at how you can start with seeds and inputs and then regenerate those inputs and seeds over time,” says Silverstein (“inputs” refers to the nutrients plants need to grow, which can be tough to come by in space). “I think that is really cool and interesting work. Not only for space, but to make the whole hydroponics system more sustainable and closed-loop.”

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