What is a vertical greenhouse? Cleburne farm uses less land and water to grow more produce

From KERA News:

Walls of carefully spaced herb and lettuce plants rise to the ceiling of a massive greenhouse in Cleburne.

Inside Eden Green Technology’s 62,000 square foot vertical greenhouse, over 340,000 plants are stacked 18 feet high.

“We have basically shrunk 40 to 50 acres of conventional farming down into an acre and a half,” said Eddy Badrina, CEO of Eden Green.

Eden Green’s approach to farming responds to many of the issues stressing modern-day food systems. Amid the rise of extreme weather events, its greenhouses can grow produce year-round with less land and water than traditional farming.

Its approach also reduces the emissions and cost of shipping food thousands of miles. Eden Green is right next to a distribution center where it can quickly get produce to major food companies like Walmart, Sysco and the restaurant chain CAVA.

Eden Green Technology chief executive officer Eddy Badrina poses for a photo at Eden Green Technology, on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Cleburne. The company was named as one of TIME’s 200 best inventions in 2024 and produces year-round herbs in vertical hydroponic systems.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

Badrina said Eden Green is part of a growing shift to produce food within the U.S.

“I think you are seeing a decentralization, a deglobalization of supply chains and specifically the food supply chain,” he said. “So in response to that, you can pay more for food and just keep on getting it shipped at a higher price, or you can take ground in growing more things domestically in the U.S.”

The challenges of innovation

Critics of vertical greenhouse farming say it has steep startup costs. Eden Green has invested $47 million into their Cleburne facility.

Meanwhile, some researchers say investments in indoor farming could be better spent improving outdoor farming conditions.

Genhua Niu is a Texas A&M professor of urban agriculture. A couple years ago, Eden Green emailed her with questions about their farming practices.

She said there are also limitations to the types of crops that can be grown in a vertical greenhouse. For example, it’s optimal for leafy greens and herbs but not for growing fruit trees like apples.

However, Niu said vertical greenhouse farming has grown in popularity over the years and will continue to become prevalent. She said it can produce about 10 to 20 times as much leafy greens as a traditional farm.

“It’s a controlled environment, so the productivity is much higher than field production,” she said.

Production technicians roll out a bed of basil inside a vertical farm green house at Eden Green Technology, on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Cleburne. The company was named as one of TIME’s 200 best inventions in 2024 and produces year-round herbs in vertical hydroponic systems.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

Despite the growing popularity, some indoor farming companies have shuttered with skeptics pointing to high energy costs. Eden Green, though, has found a way to navigate the industry fallout, with TIME magazine naming it one of the best inventions of 2024.

One way it’s trying to lower energy usage is by focusing on the climate around each individual plant instead of the entire greenhouse. The company creates “microclimates” through nodules at each plant spot that balance the levels of humidity and carbon dioxide.

“So where other greenhouses and other indoor vertical farms are controlling the entire cubic volume of this greenhouse, we primarily are concerned with just one fifth of this greenhouse,” Badrina said.

Each plant is also fed a precise amount of nutrient-infused water. Hydroponic farming, or using water instead of soil to grow plants, can reduce water usage by more than 70 to 80%, according to the peer-reviewed journal Materials Today.

Eden Green said it greatly reduces its energy usage by getting about 75% of its light from the sun, and it supplements the natural light with algorithmically-controlled light bars that deliver the exact amount of daily light plants need.

Lettuce and other varieties of leafy greens are grown in a vertical farm green house at Eden Green Technology, on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Cleburne. The company was named as one of TIME’s 200 best inventions in 2024 and produces year-round herbs in vertical hydroponic systems.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

Shamim Ahamed, an assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California, Davis, said reducing reliance on artificial light is one way to improve energy efficiency. He said vertical greenhouses could also use renewable energy such as solar panels or wind, though these require a hefty initial investment.

“In terms of increasing sustainability, there is a different approach integrating a renewable energy system in a greenhouse system. It could be [using] renewable power for heating, cooling or the de-humidification system,” he said.

The controlled environment of the greenhouse also reduces the need for herbicides and pesticides since there are no weeds and few pests. And it minimizes concerns about the spread of disease through soil or water.

“Each of these rows can be shut off from water up there and then shut off from going back into our holding tanks and recycled,” Badrina said. “So each one of these [rows] is able to be compartmentalized in such a way that it doesn’t affect the rest of the greenhouse.”

The ability to calibrate each row’s light, water and air also makes it possible to do what most greenhouses can’t: grow a variety of crops under one roof.

In addition to lettuce, the company grows the 10 most widely consumed herbs in the U.S.: basil, cilantro, parsley, mint, thyme, oregano, sage, dill, rosemary and tarragon.

Basil and other varieties of leafy greens are grown in vertical farm green house at Eden Green Technology, on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Cleburne. The company was named as one of TIME’s 200 best inventions in 2024 and produces year-round herbs in vertical hydroponic systems.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

People are quick to compare the energy efficiency of conventional and vertical greenhouse farming, but Ahamed said it’s more complicated than that.

“You can’t just make comments based on that energy. It’s not a comparable thing to do,” he said.

Vertical indoor farming is significantly more energy intensive. However, Ahamed said the method grows much more produce and also uses significantly less water and land. And Niu said Eden Green presents a compelling way to address future issues with food insecurity, especially in areas with extreme weather.

By 2050, food demand will rise by 70 to 100% due to population growth, according to the USDA.

“I think in the near future, such a system would be very useful. It seems to have high land-use efficiency and high water-use efficiency,” she said.

‘A more stable and consistent lifestyle’

Cindy Galvan (front) and Keina Ortiz work on planting basil in a vertical greenhouse at Eden Green Technology, on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Cleburne. The company was named as one of TIME’s 200 best inventions in 2024 and produces year-round herbs in vertical hydroponic systems.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

One of the most overlooked factors of farming are the workers who farm the food. While vertical greenhouse farming doesn’t solve all the issues that agricultural workers face, it does have some benefits.

Unlike traditional farming, it offers year-round work and less exposure to extreme weather and pests.

A major issue for farm workers has been heat-related exhaustion and deaths, and though vertical greenhouses are touted for being climate controlled, some workers in these spaces have faced dangerous conditions for heat and humidity.

Badrina said Eden Green is aware of these concerns and has put precautions in place for employees since it first launched. Once it reaches a certain temperature in the greenhouse, employees work for 20-minute shifts, are provided electrolytes and have access to cooling stations.

Greenhouses can also offer more stability than traditional farming, which requires workers to travel to different farms each season. Most of Eden Green’s employees live in a 20- to 30-mile radius around the headquarters.

“They’re not chasing harvests in California and New Mexico up and down the coast,” Badrina said. “[It] just provides for a more stable and consistent lifestyle for them.”

That’s the case for Janice Castro, 24, who works as an operations manager and lives just 15 minutes away on the outskirts of Cleburne, near Godley. She started working at Eden Green at 19 and worked her way from harvesting to her current position.

Castro said she started working at Eden Green just looking for a job and ended up staying because she felt invested in the people and work.

“You kind of have a lot of different personalities that you get to work with. I really like problem solving as well. So that’s also something that I kind of like about this job, having to schedule all of our orders, and how to pivot,” she said.

Production technicians work inside a vertical greenhouse at Eden Green Technology, on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Cleburne. The company was named as one of TIME’s 200 best inventions in 2024 and produces year-round herbs in vertical hydroponic systems.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

UC Davis’ Ahamed said vertical greenhouse farming can be sustainable. In the end, it comes down to having the right approach.

“As long as you can reduce the energy cost, you are the winner,” he said. “So it needs the right people, technology, decision-making and crops to make them sustainable.”

Eden Green plans to build a greenhouse that’s double the current size and hire about 100 more employees. There’s also a vision to eventually expand into vine fruits and plants that are used pharmaceutically.

Ultimately, the company hopes to expand nationally and even globally.

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