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Leading Vertical Indoor Aeroponic Farm Staffs Up for Expansion and Growth
FARIBAULT, MN (November 2021) —Living Greens Farm (LGF), the largest vertical, indoor aeroponic farm in the US that provides year-round fresh salads, salad kits, microgreens, and herbs, announces the arrival of a new VP of Sales and a new VP of Supply Chain.
Dan Olson has joined the LGF Team as the new VP of Sales. Dan is a highly experienced and successful sales leader. He has largely spent his career in food, across a variety of different categories, and has contributed to the growth of several disruptive upstart brands, such as Chobani, noosa Yogurt, RAO’s Homemade, and Enjoy Life Foods. Dan has extensive experience and relationships across the various food channels (grocery, natural, mass, food service, and wholesale), both in direct sales and managing brokers.
Dan will be a great thought leader in working with Robinson Fresh, LGF’s broker partner, and in managing LGF’s brand expansion across national and regional retail partners as LGF scales to its national footprint in the coming years. “I am excited about the opportunities for Living Greens Farm,” said Dan. “They are poised for dramatic growth and have a great business model. It will be an honor to help them get to the next level.”
Dan received a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and an MA in International Relations from Syracuse University.
Melanie Faust will be joining the LGF Team as the new VP of Supply Chain. Melanie is an accomplished 25-year veteran of all things supply chain in food operations. She spent 22 years in increasingly senior roles at Hormel Foods and another three years at Jennie-O Turkey Store. During her notable career, she has held roles in operations, supply chain, and international divisions. In her last role, as VP of Operations, Melanie led seven plants spanning approximately two million square feet and 5,000 employees. In her prior role as Director of Operations, she led operations, engineering, quality, safety, capital budgeting, and cost reduction efforts. Most importantly, she led the successful construction of a 161,000 square foot state-of-the art food processing plant while in China and will be a strong leader in the buildout of LGF’s four commercial facilities in the coming years. “Living Greens Farm has built a solid foundation from which to grow,” said Melanie. “I look forward to helping the team increase capacity and accelerate growth as we expand into new markets.”
Melanie is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Eu Claire and is CPIM certified.
Both Melanie and Dan will report directly to George Pastrana, CEO. Both will be members of the senior leadership team. “Melanie and Dan are world-class leaders in their respective fields. I am thrilled to have their capabilities and know-how on the LGF Team as we drive towards a national footprint in the next few years”, said George.
ABOUT LIVING GREENS FARM
Headquartered in Minnesota, Living Greens Farm is the world’s largest vertical plane aeroponic farm. Living Greens Farm produce requires 95 percent less water and 99 percent less land to grow year-round and all products are grown without pesticides or GMOs. Living Greens Farm has a full product line that includes salads, microgreens and herbs available throughout the Midwest.
