US: College of South Maryland to offer vertical farming course

The world's population continues to grow, beyond 8 billion people, and every one of them needs to eat every day. How do farmers keep up with the demand when there is only so much fertile agricultural land to work from?

Thanks to a recently awarded $490,000 grant from the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland to the College of Southern Maryland (CSM), students are learning that the answer could be to grow crops up instead of out – and vertically instead of horizontally.

CSM used the grant to purchase a 10-rack agricultural system from Karma Verde Fresh in Mexico and began courses in Fall 2024. The course's first students learned the basics about plant health and growing. This semester students will use the vertical grow racks to grow plants, and a third course in the springtime will also have students heading out into local farms to put the technology to the test.

There are no costs to the current students, as tuition is also covered by the grant. It took about a year to get the sustainable agriculture course set up and now the lab is up and running in the facilities management building at CSM's La Plata Campus, said Jordan Jones-Cordero, course instructor.