# Indoor Farming > Part of: [Controlled-Environment Agriculture](/controlled-environment-agriculture.md) · Provider: [DutchGreenhouses](/) Indoor farming excludes daylight and outdoor weather entirely, rebuilding the growing environment inside insulated, usually stacked cells where light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide are all produced mechanically. It sits beside greenhouse horticulture under controlled-environment agriculture rather than beneath it, and answers sites whose climate disqualifies a greenhouse. ## Facts | Property | Value | |---|---| | Share of the light budget generated | 100 % | | Variables produced mechanically | 4 variables | | Dependence on site climate | None categorical | | Governing cost | Energy categorical | | Position in the DutchGreenhouses climate rule engine | Extreme outcome | | Systems that must reinforce rather than fight each other | 4 systems | Technology # Indoor farming. When the outdoor climate disqualifies itself, farming moves indoors. Indoor farming is what happens when the outdoor climate disqualifies itself entirely. Where a greenhouse still works with sunlight and the weather — tempering them, but ultimately dependent on them — an indoor farm shuts them out completely and rebuilds the growing environment from scratch inside insulated, often stacked cells. Light, temperature, humidity and CO₂ are all created and controlled mechanically, so there is no sun to wait for, no season to work around and no weather to defend against. Cultivation becomes a fully plannable industrial process that runs identically every day of the year — controlled-environment agriculture taken to its limit. That total control is the whole point, and it unlocks capabilities a greenhouse cannot match. Because nothing depends on the site’s climate, an indoor farm can produce the same crop to the same specification whether it sits in a desert, an arctic city or a dense urban centre where no field exists. Production is consistent to the day, food-safe and pesticide-free, and can be located right next to the market it supplies — turning perishability and long transport chains from problems into non-issues. The trade-off is that recreating an entire climate by machine is energy-intensive, which is why an indoor farm is as much an energy and logistics system as it is a farm. Success depends on integrating the structure, the lighting, the climate and energy-recovery systems and the internal crop-handling flow so they reinforce rather than fight each other — capturing the heat the lights produce, moving the crop to the worker, keeping every growing layer uniform and recirculating every litre through a closed irrigation loop. For these reasons indoor farming is the answer for extreme locations and urban production, and in our own climate rule engine it is the “Extreme” outcome — the recommendation when a site’s conditions make conventional greenhouse growing impractical. It is not the right tool everywhere, but where it fits, nothing else will do. Explore the systems that make it work below, or get in touch to discuss an indoor farm for your location. Systems ## Inside the indoor farm. ### The Structure Insulated cells and racking ### Climate Systems Full air conditioning per cell ### Growing Systems Stacked hydroponic layers ### Irrigation Systems Closed-loop fertigation ### Grow Lights 100% of the light budget ### Logistics Moving crops, not people From the knowledge base ## Reads you might find interesting ceacultivationbusiness-case ### Grow Like a Pro: Starting Smart, Growing Strong How Grow Like a Pro combines smart farming, CEA technology and local partnerships for eco-friendly, profitable, pesticide-free greenhouse pr Read article education ### The Case for a College Greenhouse Why a college greenhouse belongs in the curriculum: teaching science, craftsmanship, business logic and sustainability, and preparing studen Read article education ### The Case for a High School Greenhouse Why every high school greenhouse matters: how it makes STEM tangible, builds responsibility and teamwork, and helps students discover their Read article education ### Greenhouses in Education: The Case for Schools Greenhouses in education reconnect students to reality — the full case for why every school, high school, college and trade program should h Read article historyconstruction ### The Origins of Greenhouse Horticulture: My Backyard A tour through greenhouse horticulture history: from 19th-century Westland fruit walls to the “City of Glass” and today’s international high Read article company ### DutchGreenhouses Rebranded: A New Corporate Identity Announcing our new corporate identity — a visual style reflecting our dedication to advanced, high-quality greenhouse projects and The Futur Read article ## FAQ **What is indoor farming?** Cultivation that shuts out sunlight and weather completely and rebuilds the growing environment inside insulated, often stacked cells. Light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide are all created mechanically, so there is no season to work around and no weather to defend against — growing becomes a plannable industrial process. **How is indoor farming different from a greenhouse?** By where the light comes from. A greenhouse takes most of its light from the sky for nothing and spends its engineering on managing it. An indoor farm generates every photon and spends on the control that buys. The first is bounded by the site's solar radiation, the second by its electricity price. **When is indoor farming the right answer?** When the outdoor climate disqualifies itself — extreme locations, and urban production next to the market it supplies. It is not the right tool everywhere, and a greenhouse is usually the better economics where daylight is workable. Where it fits, nothing else will do. **Why is an indoor farm as much an energy system as a farm?** Because recreating a whole climate by machine is energy-intensive, and the lamps that supply the light also supply heat that has to go somewhere. The project succeeds or fails on whether structure, lighting, climate, energy recovery and crop handling are integrated so they reinforce rather than fight each other. **Is indoor farming a kind of greenhouse horticulture?** No. Both are controlled-environment agriculture, but they are siblings rather than parent and child. Greenhouse horticulture is defined by daylight remaining primary; indoor farming is defined by its absence. Treating one as a subtype of the other misstates what each is engineered to solve. ## Related [Controlled-Environment Agriculture](/controlled-environment-agriculture.md) · [Greenhouse Horticulture](/greenhouse-horticulture.md) · [Growlights](/growlights.md) · [Hydroponics](/irrigation/hydroponics.md) · [Climate](/climate.md) · [Automation](/automation.md) · [Energy Use](/performance/energy-use.md) · [Yield](/performance/yield.md) · [Arid & Desert](/climate-zones/arid-desert.md) · [Cold Extreme & Polar](/climate-zones/cold-extreme.md) ## See also https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q108100368