COLUMBIA (Post and Courier Columbia) — Two urban farms are expanding production at new, larger properties in the Columbia area.

Both farms are settling in to their new locations, even as tariffs and political shifts at the federal Department of Agriculture sew uncertainty for the future.

City Roots

City Roots Farm, the organic microgreens producer founded in 2009, is coming off of its first year at the farm’s new location at 108 Carswell Drive off of Bluff Road.

The new location has allowed the farm to ramp up production and explore new revenue streams, said CEO Eric McClam, who founded the farm with his father.

“It’s been generally pretty wonderful,” McClam said. “It’s nice to have a purpose-built facility that's efficient and designed to the parameters that we needed.”

City Roots has been able to sell its arugula, broccoli, radish, cilantro, purple cabbage and more to new markets in New York, Chicago and Florida, along with local storefronts, he said.

The farm bought around 90 acres of land from Richland County in 2022, before moving in in early 2024 from its previous spot on Airport Boulevard.

City Roots is currently occupying 10 acres of the land with a massive greenhouse, facilities for its geothermal heating and cooling system, cleaning and packaging facilities and 1,000 solar panels.

The remaining 80 acres of protected wetlands are used by farm staff and their families, McClam said.

The 75,000-square-foot greenhouse is heated and cooled via an innovative geothermal energy system — using the ambient temperature of the earth below the farm to heat and cool water without the need for fossil fuels.

[read more: Post and Courier Columbia]