Revolution Farms, a recently launched aquaponics farm based in Caledonia, harvested its first salad greens earlier this month and is now selling them at 16 SpartanNash stores across Michigan.
"We'll really be the only local option," said Tripp Frey, a Grand Rapids native who founded the company after spending nearly a decade in Hood River, Oregon, running a small, outdoor apparel company. "Ninety percent of the lettuce that we eat from the grocery store comes from California."
The company expects to harvest about 350,000 pounds of the product each year at its 50,000-square-foot glass greenhouse at 76th Street in Caledonia.
It cost about $3.3 million to launch Revolution Farms. The company received a $50,000 performance grant from the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development to help fund the construction of its Venlo style glass greenhouse and an accompanying 35,000-square-foot warehouse.
As of now, Revolution Farms can be found in 16 SpartanNash stores across Michigan, most of which are clustered in West Michigan. Those stores include 11 D&W Fresh Market locations, Forest Hills Foods, and select VG's Grocery and Family Fare stores.