The U.S. has a produce sourcing problem. Over 90% of the country’s lettuce comes from California's Salinas and Imperial Valleys, and Yuma, Arizona — meaning that almost all of the lettuce eaten by consumers on the East Coast has traveled more than 3,000 miles. Now, Eden Green, a Texas-based vertical farming company, is working to fix America’s lettuce issue.

Chief executive officer Eddy Badrina says the waste from cross-country travel and transportation costs aren't economically sustainable. Which poses an interesting question: What would happen if you could move farms closer to consumers and distributors?

“For the end consumer, we’re solving a guilt and shame problem,“ Badrina says. “They know the product is going to go bad in four days, but they buy it anyway because they’re guilted into healthy eating.”

Badrina explains that a vast majority of Americans can’t afford to throw away a bag of lettuce four days after buying it, so the localization problem puts them at an unfair disadvantage because they’re forced to use the produce sooner than others.

To solve this, Eden Green has begun operating vertical greenhouses outside of Dallas, Texas, just yards away from a distribution center that supplies more than 150 grocery stores across the country. The greenhouses, which are capable of growing up to 2 million pounds of lettuce per year, provide stores with lettuce that goes from farm to shelf in as little as 48 hours.

Badrina takes pride in the fact that Eden Green lettuce can be found at every Walmart in Texas and Oklahoma for only $2.98 per head, up to $2 less than that of Eden Green’s competitors.

Eden Green products also have lower transportation costs, saving some organizations 20% to 30% on produce. Badrina says the quick harvest-to-shelf process extends the shelf life of produce, allowing retailers to offer prices that don’t have to account for food waste, extra sanitation or longer transportation. Moreover, Eden Green aims to provide distributors with numerous lettuce-sourcing locations across the country, eliminating “quite a bit of cost” for suppliers because they can localize their operations.

In Texas, Eden Green is shrinking a significant portion of the lettuce supply chain from 1,500 miles to 1,500 yards, Badrina says. The company has a greenhouse located across the street from a distribution partner, greatly reducing the distance lettuce travels from farm to distributor.

A recent report states the U.S. will experience record heat levels this summer, which will add more pressure to the food supply chain. Coupled with current crop-growing methods, costs are going to drastically increase for suppliers across the U.S. — but not for Eden Green, Badrina claims.

Unlike most farms, Eden Green utilizes a patented vertical produce-growing process that takes advantage of unused space. Normal farms will hypothetically plant 100 rows of lettuce, with 60 heads per row, across 30 acres of land. But Eden Green stacks the rows on top of each other multiple times, allowing it to extract the same yield while using fewer acres of land and less energy needed to power the greenhouses, Eden Green then passes those savings on to distributors so they don’t have to raise prices to make up for the cost of maintaining temperature-controlled environments within greenhouses.

Additionally, Eden Green uses 95% to 98% less water compared with traditional farms. A five-ounce head of lettuce grown out West will consume around 30 gallons of water due to transportation and waste, according to Badrina. Eden Green only needs 2.5 gallons to get that same yield.

By easing the burden on trucks that used to drive 1,500 to 3,000 miles, drivers are free to transport other products. In addition, Badrina says, greenhouses reduce reliance on migrant workers, allowing them to work in other industries.

Lettuce is grown in Yuma and Salinas Valley during the summer, and Imperial Valley during the winter. As a result, migrant workers “chase the harvests” up and down the coast year-round, Badrina says. Eden Green’s greenhouses make it possible for them to settle in one location, and “just drive to work every day.”

“The permanence of that process creates a new type of job and a new type of farmer,” Badrina says. “They don’t have to live rurally or migrate. They can live anywhere, providing a new level of stability.”

Currently, the organization has two greenhouses in Cleburne, Texas, with groundbreakings expected soon at two more facilities. Badrina says Eden Green’s long-term goal is to have a network of 20 distribution center-adjacent greenhouses built across the U.S. over the next five years.

Eden Green will likely build greenhouses in places with high lettuce demands. Badrina describes how the Southeast, Indiana and Missouri all could house the greenhouses. “It’s the folks that are thousands of miles away [from produce distributors] that really need a more accessible supply of greens,” he says.

Badrina believes the upcoming Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation passed every five years, could greatly impact Eden Green. So far, however, he has failed to convince members of Congress to treat his company like any other farmer as a target for investment. The reason, he speculates, is that Eden Green is seen as a technology company, operating within an industry that relies on manual growing processes and labor.

“Lawmakers don’t know what to do with us,” he says. “If a farm out West cuts three gallons of water out of the 30 gallons they use, they get rewarded for that conservation effort. I’m using 2.5 gallons of water, but I’m not being rewarded for anything.

"I’m just asking lawmakers to treat us the same as traditional farms and farming companies," Badrina says. "It’s going to take a lot of work, though, to get support throughout all 50 states, and then on a federal level.”

Eden Green's mission “is to change the way we’re sustainably and reliably feeding people,” Badrina says. “At the end of the day, for the industry, it’s a supply chain problem that we’re trying to solve.”