Shipping containers have already proven themselves to be used for far more than shipping goods across the country, or across the ocean. The tiny house movement has made good use of them for several years now, and one company out of California has decided to take it one step further.

Sustainable farming has become a hot-button issue over the last five to 10 years, but "Farm from a Box" has come up with a way to let the average person create their own "micro-farms."

The units come in three different sizes: 10 feet, 20 feet, and 40 feet. Each unit is also equipped with all the necessary equipment, including a backup generator, to ensure your farm gets everything it needs to grow and flourish.

They include: solar panels, built in WiFi, an irrigation system, weather tracking systems, seedlings, farming equipment, and even a training program for people who need a little help getting things going.

And each unit is capable of growing crops on a hectare of land, or 2.47 acres.

The Farm from a Box is desinged to help smaller rural communities who rely heavily on agriculture, and who lack the resources needed to do so, feed themselves.

"Based on extensive field research, we found that rural communities often lack the resources and infrastructure needed to access nutritious food," co-founder DeCarli said. "We developed a toolkit that contains all of the core components needed to grow your own food, on a two acre plot of land, without the need for an existing grid. Imagine the good it can do by growing local, organic food for a school, or helping jumpstart food production after a disaster. "˜Farm from a Box' enables and empowers communities to provide for themselves."

There is going to be a complete beta test in The Rift Valley in Ethiopia a little later this year.

It is actually quite affordable for any community looking to get one started, ranging in price between $25,000 and $45,000 depending on how technologically customized they need to be.

Does your community need something like this?