Designers envision greenhouse-market in shipping containers

From The News & Observer: RALEIGH, N.C -- RALEIGH, N.C. - After three years of experimenting with new ways to grow food, two 29-year-old Raleigh men are ready to launch the Farmery - a food production system made out of shipping containers that combines a farmers market and greenhouse.

Benjamin Greene and Tyler Nethers are a design and farming duo who hope to raise enough money and get permission to build their invention in either downtown Raleigh or Durham. After they patented their design, their names started echoing in urban farming circles and among researchers at North Carolina State University.

"We are trying to solve a big problem for small farmers," said Greene, who grew up watching his farmer grandfather get squashed in a battle with a supermarket who wouldn't buy his produce because he lacked the supply of bigger farms.

Greene, an artist, studied sculpture at Clemson University and is an Army veteran of the war in Iraq; the Farmery is a modified version of his master's thesis project in industrial design at NCSU. Nethers has taught classes on urban gardening and grew endangered species for the Army in Hawaii.

While holding down day jobs to support their dream, the two have spent their spare time growing vegetables in two shipping containers in Clayton, N.C, where they've developed a prototype of the Farmery. They currently sell vegetables to several local restaurants.

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