Ken VandeVrede’s goal, he said, is to create a more sustainable, safer and more cost-effective product right here at home.
“And, if we are awarded the licenses we seek, we’ll be hiring a staff of between 150 and 200 people over the next year or two,” he said.
That is why VandeVrede, founder and CEO of Hillview Farms in Pequannock, has been accelerating his family’s New Jersey farm business’s expansion from flowers and greens into hemp and cannabis over the last year.
“The expansion of the state’s medical cannabis program and state regulation on commercial hemp should go a long way toward reinforcing New Jersey’s reputation as the Garden State,” he said. “We are a New Jersey business, backed by a high level of expertise in this burgeoning industry, and are committed to building our business and making a deeper contribution to the economy of the state.”
His family’s business, Gro-Rite Greenhouses and Garden Center in Lincoln Park, has been in the state since 1973, providing direct-to-consumer agricultural crops via a small garden center on the family farm.