The Packer: Indoor Ag-Con State Of The Industry Highlights Challenges and Change
From The Packer, March 13, 2025 | By Jennifer Strailey — The state of the industry keynote at Indoor Ag-Con, March 11-12, explored the industry’s past and present challenges, “transformative change,” success stories and more.
The state of the industry keynote at Indoor Ag-Con, March 11-12, explored the industry’s past and present challenges, ‘transformative change,’ success stories and more.
Moderated by Tom Stenzel, executive director of the CEA Alliance, the discussion featured panelists from three different business models of controlled environment agriculture: vertical farming; semi-closed, greenhouse-grown salads; and greenhouse-grown tomatoes.
Panelists including Tisha Livingston, president and co-founder of 80 Acres and CEO of Infinite Acres; Abby Prior, chief commercial officer for BrightFarms; and Skip Hullett, vice president and general counsel for NatureSweet, shared their challenges and triumphs in an industry that has suffered setbacks in recent years.
80 Acres/Infinite Acres
Hamilton, Ohio-based 80 Acres is a vertical farming company producing a range of salads, microgreens, herbs and tomatoes. In an industry where some have focused too heavily on tech in favor of farming, Livingston and her business partner, who co-founded the company in 2015, had the vision to separate the farming and tech sides of the business.
“When we started the company, we recognized that growing and being grower-centric was very important,” she said. “Building out the technology was also important, but they were very different skill sets. So, we created these two companies.”
NatureSweet
Based in San Antonio, Texas, NatureSweet, is a greenhouse tomato grower that owns over 1,500 acres of greenhouse space, has 12 production facilities in Arizona and across Mexico, and distributes its products to retailers nationwide. Best known for its Cherubs snacking tomatoes, the company also grows peppers and cucumbers.
“We’re vertically integrated, so we’re kind of unique in our industry,” said Hullett. “We call it: from seed to smile. We grow, plant, harvest and package.”
BrightFarms
BrightFarms is a controlled environment agriculture grower based in Irvington, N.Y.
“We have a network of farms that support our national customers,” said Prior. “Over the last year, we’ve built three new farms in Illinois, Texas and Georgia, which combined make the largest network of semi-closed, high-tech greenhouses for leafy greens here in the U.S.”
BrightFarms takes a regional approach to grow locally and create regional supply chains and supply hubs for salads across the country, Prior said. The company was acquired by Cox Enterprises in 2021 and is now part of the platform of Cox Farms greenhouse growers that includes Mucci Farms.
controlled environment agriculture, greenhouse, state of the industry, vertical farming