A unique Macon lettuce farm is competing in a statewide contest

BrightFarms looks nothing like your typical Middle Georgia farm. It’s an 8-acre greenhouse that serves as a regional hub for lettuce production in the Southeast, churning out roughly 14,000 pounds of greens daily.

The Cox Farms-owned packaged salad supplier opened its South Bibb County location less than two miles east of the Middle Georgia Regional Airport in 2025, making it the fourth BrightFarms greenhouse in the country (along with hubs in Texas, Illinois and New Hampshire). 

The Macon greenhouse recently earned a spot in the semifinals of the state Chamber of Commerce’s second annual Coolest Thing Made in Georgia competition. More than 30 products made in the Peach state compete in a knockout-style tournament, with each round decided by a public vote. Last year, Lockheed Martin’s C-130J Super Hercules came out on top.

BrightFarms will go head-to-head against TifTuf Drought Tolerant Bermudagrass, developed by University of Georgia researchers. Voting ends this Thursday.

How it’s produced 

From seed to harvest, BrightFarms grows four varieties of lettuce in an almost entirely automated production process.

Walking from one end of the production line to the other feels much like a “live-in time lapse” of growth, said Jess Soare, assistant vice president of BrightFarms marketing. 

A machine drops lettuce seeds into “gutters” filled with peat moss. The gutters each contain 400 seeds and travel through a watering tunnel before entering the germination chamber for 48 hours. The climate-controlled chamber encourages the fledgling plants to sprout above the soil. 

“That’s really the most important part of the whole process,” Soare said. “When you have a little infant, you want to make sure they get every single thing that they need perfectly. That’s what we’re doing.”

A completely controlled environment allows for the seeds to sprout much faster than traditional farming methods. 

Next, a fully automated system transports each gutter inside the 450,000-square-foot greenhouse, which holds between 1,200 and 1,600 gutters at a time. That’s 640,000 lettuce plants growing under one roof. 

As new gutters enter the greenhouse, the ones with ready-to-harvest lettuce are removed. Plants spend about 18-21 days inside the growing chamber where temperature, humidity and CO2 levels remain controlled at all times. 

BrightFarms’ “Ultra-clima” technology allows the entire environment to be “managed actually down at the level of the plants,” Soare said. 

Air circulates directly on top of the greens and water spigots deliver water through the gutters and from automatic overhead sprayers. Shades on the greenhouse ceiling allow complete control of sun exposure and LEDs allow for added UV light. 

Growers regularly inspect the vast greenhouse to ensure plants are getting what they need.

Lettuce leaves are separated from their roots in the harvest room before being hand-inspected for quality and packaged and shipped to stores across the Southeast. All BrightFarm lettuces are packaged in ready-to-eat containers and don’t require washing. Any organic waste is shipped to local farms for use as fertilizer.

Only four products remain in the Coolest Thing Made in Georgia contest. BrightFarms has beaten out Elysian Parfum, Hot Hands, Claxton Fruit Cake and the Original Chick-fil-A Sandwich, among others.

If BrightFarms wins this week’s match, it will move onto the finals against either Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food or Blue Bird Vision Electric School Bus. Final votes can be cast from July 17-23 and the winner is announced Aug. 5. 

Visit coolestthingmadeinga.com to cast your vote and learn more.