As the world population grows, food demand grows alongside it. According to a report from Global Market Insights, the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) market will reach $168.7 billion in value by 2032. These numbers indicate that growing indoors will gain more traction over the next decade.
Climate change is a key driver of this growth, as it makes traditional farming challenging and unreliable.
In the U.S., certain fruits and vegetables can only grow in specific states year-round due to their required growing conditions. Take strawberries, for example. Approximately 90% of strawberries grown in the U.S. come from California due to its warm, sunny climate and fertile soil.
A strawberry shipped thousands of miles arrives with barely a week of shelf life left. And since that strawberry was harvested a week prior, it loses most of its flavor and ripeness before it even reaches the grocery store shelf.
The Case for Indoor Growing
Growing produce in greenhouses and indoor farms makes shelf life less of a concern.
When fruits and vegetables are grown locally, they’re typically harvested the day before—sometimes sooner. This means the crop in question will taste better, fresher, and last much longer.
Purchasing produce that’s past its peak is one of the largest contributors to food waste. As soon as lettuce starts to brown and wilt, it typically gets thrown in the trash. The longer it takes for lettuce to reach that point, the less food will go to waste.
This ties directly back to food miles, or the total distance food travels from the farm to the final consumer.
While vertical farming has plenty of promise, it has earned a polarizing reputation in the CEA industry.
Addressing the Elephant in the Room
CEA is leading the charge on local food production, but despite its potential, the industry hasn’t gotten good press in the last decade.
Growing food indoors—especially in vertical farms—is not easy or inexpensive. Unlike greenhouses, which use both sunlight and supplemental lighting, everything in a vertical farm is completely controlled.
Growers generate CO2 and lighting while controlling temperature and automation to match their crops’ specific growing needs. To get a vertical farm off the ground, it needs high capital investment from outside vendors. On top of that, operating costs are higher than greenhouses, high tunnels, and traditional farming. Combined, both of these factors have been the root cause of 14 vertical farm bankruptcies in 2025.
Regardless of the bad press vertical farms have received in recent years, many CEA professionals still believe that this sector of the industry has a bright future.
“What’s emerging now is not a failed industry, it’s a filtered one,” Nona Yehia, co-founder and CEO of Vertical Harvest Farms, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “The question is no longer whether vertical farming can exist. The question is who is willing to build it properly, because the need is not theoretical.”
The need for greenhouses and vertical farms is undeniable. But those that succeed match the right crop to their growing environment.
Choosing the Right Crops Is Essential
Not every crop is built for indoor growing—there are a select few that thrive in greenhouses and vertical farms.
Take a look at any CEA operation, and it probably grows one of the following crops: tomatoes, leafy greens, strawberries, microgreens, cucumbers, mushrooms, or peppers. But all of these fruits and vegetables are better suited for different growing environments and media.
Here’s a breakdown of each.
Indoor Growing Environments
- Tomatoes: Greenhouses—they need room to grow and consistent sunlight.
- Leafy greens: Greenhouses and vertical farms—their short roots and quick growing cycles make them a good fit for most growing systems.
- Strawberries: Greenhouses—vertical farms haven’t figured out pollination and fruiting at scale yet.
- Microgreens: Vertical farms—they’re harvested young and grown in dense trays, making them a good fit for stacked systems.
- Cucumbers: Greenhouses—they need room to grow vertically and natural sunlight.
- Mushrooms: Indoor farms—they need a humid environment, darkness, and high CO2 levels that neither vertical farms nor greenhouses can create.
- Peppers: Greenhouses—they need pollination and consistent sunlight.
Indoor Growing Media
- Tomatoes: Rockwool, perlite, and coco coir.
- Leafy greens: Peat-based mixes, coco coir, perlite.
- Strawberries: Peat-based mixes, coco coir, and perlite.
- Microgreens: Peat-based mixes, coconut coir, and fiber mats.
- Cucumbers: Coco coir, pine bark, and perlite.
- Mushrooms: Coco coir, vermiculite, and sawdust.
- Peppers: Peat-based potting mixes, coco coir, and perlite.
But matching the crop to the right growing media and environment is only a piece of the puzzle. Choosing the right crop also means understanding the market it’s going to.
Take microgreens, for instance. Since it’s a high-value crop, microgreens primarily appeal to chefs and health-conscious consumers. Not every grocery store has a customer base willing to pay that premium, which means distribution decisions are just as important as growing media and environment.
Leafy greens, on the other hand, appeal to almost every consumer segment. By moving through grocery store chains and food service distributors in large volumes, leafy greens are the ideal crop for most indoor growing operations.
Strawberries shipped from California with a week-long shelf life aren’t going away any time soon. But when a greenhouse or vertical farm gets it right, those strawberries have more competition.
The future of food probably isn’t a field in California. It might be a greenhouse or a warehouse less than two miles from your grocery store.