Take a look at a unique employee-owned cooperative that grows lettuce and other greens for local food services, restaurants and grocery stores with plans to do more.
Floating rafts are used to grow lettuce hydroponically.
Strict food safety procedures are followed, including wearing hairnets any time employees or visitors are in the growing or packaging areas.
Young plants are placed in rafts at one end of the growing area; as plants grow they are gradually pushed to the other end, where they are harvested.
At harvest, plants are washed and placed intact —including the roots — in clamshells, where they will stay fresh for up to two weeks. They are branded with the Living Lettuce name.
Cases of Living Butter lettuce, the most popular variety, ready for shipment. Green City Growers will produce 3 million heads of lettuce and 300,000 pounds of herbs per year. The food dollars are kept in Cleveland, within a 50-mile radius. The company donates one percent of its produce to local food banks.