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Providing an off-grid toolkit for communities everywhere, Farm from a Box delivers shipping containers containing everything needed for a two acre farm. Once at the destination, the containers double in size to provide the physical and technological base for managing the plot. Designed to erase the problem of food deserts, each farm could produce enough food to feed up to 150 people or earn significant income for owners choosing to grow cash crops.

Inside each box is an irrigation system, a pumping system, basic farm tools, a solar power kit and an Internet of Things management system. Each order is customized to the buyer’s climate and purpose, and additional or different modules can be supplied. Farm from a Box is currently raising funds on Republic and is already fully funded. The company’s prototype farm has proved a success, and the funding will be used to improve manufacturing and supply chains for commercial production.

Shipping containers are proving a particularly useful and adaptable resource. In Copenhagen, they are being used as affordable student apartments, and a Dutch company has created a modular playing field and community center that is available for shipping worldwide. What other unexpected projects or products could be scaled up by using a shipping container as packaging and infrastructure?