June 2021 - 5

J&J
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
means " there's not a lot of diseases that are
going to impact our crop right away, " he
added.
The man tasked with growing a variety
of dry vegetable types on the farm is
Clayton Amestoy, a fifth-generation
Florida farmer.
Amestoy's family is " familiar with the
soil type and the climate, " Gallagher said.
" They've already
got the planting
schedule for the
fall if everything
goes as scheduled.
He knows exactly
what we're going to
plant and grow, so
weather permitting,
we should have a
nice crop in the
fourth quarter. "
There are few
is an investment in the future of the J&J
Family of Farms, as well as the many
outside growers with whom it works.
Gallagher said the company is
meant to develop genetic material and
vegetable varieties with better consumer
traits - " higher nutrition, better-tasting,
potentially crispier texture. " J&J's
owner, Benson Hill, markets itself as
" unlocking the natural genetic diversity
of plants with its cutting-edge food
innovation engine, CropOS. "
" They'd like to get into giving our
growers and consumers better tasting,
healthier vegetables, " Gallagher said.
The research may include crops the
company doesn't grow yet.
Benson Hill said it plans to enhance
J&J's operations with breeding and
testing sites, expanded processing and
distribution capacity and sustainability
best practices across its grower base.
" Combined with J&J's extensive
JIM
GALLAGHER
challenges to the area - " the biggest issues
here are weather-related, " he said - but
a minor issue is that nutrients tend to
leach out of the sandy soil fairly quickly,
which is why precision fertigation via drip
tape is preferable. The company hopes to
increase water use efficiency by up to 70%
and cut down energy costs by as much as
50%, according to a news release from the
company.
Research ready
A new facility and ground in the area
grower base, distribution network and
retail relationships, which are further
strengthened by today's announcement,
Benson Hill is well positioned to
execute on the development and
ultimately the commercialization of
differentiated produce and 'functional
foods,' with the potential to serve the
growing convergence between the
produce and pharmacy aisles, " the
company wrote in a news release.
Logistics economics
The location will allow the J&J Family
of Farms to pack vegetables from other
farms it works with and other farmland
it leases. In addition to the new farm and
A mock-up drawing of the facility of J&J Family of Farms in Vero Beach, Florida.
research facility, J&J announced it was
also adding roughly 1,000 acres of leased
land in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and
Indiana.
" We either own or lease a percentage
of our ground, but we're very reliant on
our outside grower family, " Gallagher
said. " This would give us a little more
control of our own land. It would be our
biggest farming project for the company. "
As a shipping location, the new
location is well positioned.
" With the need for more refrigerated
space in the Southeast, one of the
things I think we'll be able to do is more
consolidation for our customers, beyond
what we grow for market, " he said. " The
way that most retailers or foodservice
customers buy, they would buy those
dry vegetable items together from a
consolidation standpoint. "
When it comes to shipping
challenges, the company is willing to
arrange partial loads - something that's
a challenge in the produce industry -
through its trucking company, Trophy
Transportation.
" The fact that we have our own
transportation arranged through
Trophy allows us to ship
less-than-truckload orders to a variety
of customers, " Gallagher said.
The new packing facility is expected
to yield an ability to do more
value-added products, for example,
the popular " stoplight " red, yellow
and green sweet peppers stacked in a
narrow bag.
" A lot of our customers want both
commodity and value-added, packaged
(product), " Gallagher said. " Especially,
as you know, with COVID hitting,
there's more demand for prepackaged
clean produce. " VGN
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VGN | JUNE 2021 | 5
June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2021
