Here in Michigan, we know all about the production line.

After all, we first helped put the country on wheels.

Well, this is hydroponic agriculture, a similar system that blends conveyor belts, technology and biology to grow lettuce no matter what Mother Nature has in store.

- So we're the only ones using this large of a automation system.

We have two acres that we're growing, and so we make about 15,000 pounds of lettuce every week that we distribute across Michigan and other states.

- [Stefanie] It's hard not to think you stepped into the future of farming here in the Midwest when you walk around the space at Revolution Farms.

It is a fascinating loop that begins with a single seed and ends with a package full of fresh greens.

- [Tim] We purchase our seeds from a distributor, and each gutter that we use to grow in, it's about 18 feet long.

We pack it full of peat moss in a wood fiber material, and then the seeds get laid in there automatically by a drum seeder.

That gutter is then moved out into the greenhouse, and within about 23 days, it'll go all the way from seed to being a full harvest kind of head of lettuce.

So we have a very short growing period in that time.

And then after that, the gutter moves into the harvest room and goes across a blade.

- There are 10 growing lanes inside the greenhouse.

Each lane has about 1,800 gutters growing about five pounds of lettuce.

Now, if you're doing the math, that equals about one million pounds of salad greens grown each year.

- It's a hydroponic system, so we're only giving the plants a small amount of water directly to the roots.

So nothing's ever touching the leaves.

Means a whole lot less water.

There's no soil factoring in.

So like organic certifications all have to do with like clean soil and making sure you're not overusing pesticides and treating the ground with anything.

We don't have to worry about that.

The seeds are just come out, it's a non-GMO seed.

It gets delivered here.

We end up supplying water with nutrients to it, and then that allows, the peat moss allows the seed to put some roots into the gutter, and then we get a plant very quickly after that by not using any soil.

- [Stefanie] One thing you won't see in the large greenhouse?

People, there's very little human-to-plant interaction.

That's intentional.

It's an additional safety measure to prevent contamination as lettuce grows before it gets harvested.

- So food safety is one of our top priorities.

As everyone knows, we've heard about different recalls of lettuce from, you know, fields and it's animals, kind of different exposure to things with, you know, E. Coli, listeria are all big threats to us.

We're not immune to those being indoors.

There's still stuff that can come in from outside and still affect the lettuce.

So the less human interaction that you have with food growing, the much better off you're gonna be on food safety.

Again, nobody's touching it the whole time, no pesticides have been applied.

It's just been sitting out there growing in the sun and the beautiful weather.

And once it gets cut in the harvest room, then it immediately goes into our packing cooler and brought down to refrigeration temperature and then packed into different containers to go out to the stores and to our end customers.

- Everything's kind of always constantly changing.

I love the plants.

It's what I really fell in love with at school.

So it's cool I get to continue doing that in my career.

Managing all the inputs to kind of make the plants healthy and grow, and then provide really local produce to the area.

- [Stefanie] Another point of pride for Revolution Farms is the employees.

Not many stick around, and that's not a bad thing.

- So we're a mission-focused non-profit that grows farm produce.

So we employ everybody with any kind of barrier to employment, whether that's a disability, whether that's a return-to-work program out of the prison system, whether it's refugees, pretty much anything.

So anybody who really has a hard time either getting that first job or returning to work the second or third job, we do vocational rehabilitation training.

So we really wanna see our employees get trained on all the different aspects of working in a regular environment.

And then if they move on to another place and are able to get another job, we celebrate those successes.

- [Stefanie] From the packing room to store shelves, Tim says it can't get much more local or fresher than this.

- Being able to find a system that allows us to grow 52 weeks outta the year is really just a help for all our customers and everybody in Michigan to be able to eat fresh, local produce year round.

People are always wanting stuff, especially in the middle of winter.

It's cloudy, it's cold, it's snowing, and then they say like, "Wait, you just grew this right down the street?

How is that possible?"

And you know, and being in here on a winter cold day feels like summer.

(air whooshing)