It Takes a Village: Jennifer Waxman applies her passion for creating a pure and sustainable local food system to indoor growing
By Amy Wu and Lauryl Gonzalez
Jennifer Waxman is the executive director of The Villages Grown, a farm that is located on 45-acres as part of The Villages one of the largest retirement communities in the U.S. Under her leadership Waxman developed The Villages Grown business and educational model.
Waxman entered the sustainable agriculture industry in 2001 as a global marketing manager for the Antelco Corp., an international manufacturer specializing in agricultural water conservation technology. She traveled the world and worked alongside greenhouse operators and farmers, while also observing the health conditions of such areas in their relation to the agricultural practices in several world regions. In this position she oversaw new product development for the hydroponics division and helped growers in field and greenhouse to create new and advanced products and systems.
In 2005, she launched Sustainable Synergy a sustainable agriculture and wellness consulting firm in Central Florida. Waxman earned a dual degree in psychology and fashion merchandising at Florida State University, and a Master of Business Administration from Rollins College.
Q: How did you get into agriculture?
A: I've been in hydroponics in agriculture since 2000 when I started my career…I worked for the largest manufacturer of micro-irrigation in the world and got to travel the world looking at controlled environmental agriculture. I eventually left that firm but took them on as a client in 2005 and launched my own firm with the premise of being an intersection between agriculture and wellness. I would connect U.S. farmers, particularly in Florida and Canada, with the product manufacturers and other types of distributors to move their products into New Year's or markets, other than just food production.
Q: How did you choose the area of agriculture?
A: My mother's side comes from farming and growing up we had a fresh garden. My mother used to grow, hand-pick, and can our food but I didn’t appreciate that all until college.
Q: Did you imagine yourself starting an enterprise that combined agriculture and wellness?
A: I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and be in a field that reflected gardening. While I was earning my MBA I (worked at) an outdoor hydroponic operation which received a lot of recognition. This large manufacturer recruited me so I had a job in the field prior to graduating.
Q: Can you explain your journey that led you to The Villages Grown?
A: When I opened the firm (Sustainable Synergy) in 2005, I became the kind of go-to person for writing business plans, raising capital, go-to-market strategies, and grant funding for not just controlled environmental agriculture, but also the local agriculture sector in the state of Florida. I also launched Slow Food Orlando. Slow Foods became the antithesis of fast-food connecting people with the farmers in their own backyard and cutting out the middle man. I was also involved in bringing the Tower Garden, a retail power hydroponic aeroponic-feeding system into the market.
Q: What are some of the most popular vegetables that you produce at The Villages Grown?
A: We are the largest grower in the State of Florida, southeast. We grow both hydroponic, and aeroponically under one roof. We are also a food as medicine approach, we grow for nutrients first, and taste always naturally follows. We're the only year-round grower of tomatoes in the State of Florida, including heirloom tomatoes, leafy greens, petite greens, lettuce, micro greens, and specialty herbs and items such as white cucumbers and squash blossoms.
Q: What's the population you roughly serve annually?
A: We serve the State of Florida, but there are about 165,000 (people who are served) and 20,000 employees at The Villages alone.
Q: Can you discuss food as wellness and health?
A: My background in wellness is about the most nutritious food that you can grow. We prove this with third-party nutritional analysis, and we are embarking on the largest health impact study that has ever been done in the world, to prove that consuming food from a local food system grown the right way…Not all food is grown or created equal and has a positive impact on one's health and well-being.
Q: What kind of fruits and vegetables maybe are you sourcing that's more like food is health and wellness?
We grow over 80 different skews of categories. And we also are not only aggregators of other local farm products but artisanal products. We sell our product to artisans, and they, in turn, produce plant-based products. We are a plant-based movement.
Q: What would you tell somebody who doesn't know much about plant based foods?
A: I think it's no secret that consuming fruits and vegetables has been proven for decades is what makes a well-balanced heart-healthy diet. We're not going to change the world and have everyone go vegan, but we preach the 80-20 rule – that is 80% plant protein and 20% animal protein.
Q: What are some of the key initiatives that you're working on this year?
A: We have a very large retail presence. We are going into Publix, Winn-Dixie, and Sprouts. We are the first to be a farm-direct program for hospitals in our state.
Q: What kind of innovations are you using in farming?
A: We’re in the game to sell nutritious produce, technology is just littered in the background to make our lives easier. We do not use robotics, everything we do is handpicked so that the plant is intact and not susceptible to pests and disease, which happens when you're growing for volume.
Q: What's next on the horizon for indoor farming?
A: I think having a diversified product… is not only happening very fast but it’s one of the biggest topics of the show…You will see a lot of berry and tomato production. What I also see on the horizon are alliances, everything we do is alliance based -- sharing best practices, most people don’t like to play in the sandbox unless they are doing it for good intent…we’ve built a very strong controlled environmental agriculture alliance in Florida.
Amy Wu is an award-winning journalist with a specialty in writing about food, agriculture and innovation. She is the founder of From Farms to Incubators a media and events initiative that using storytelling to champion women in the food systems. Amy is moderating a panel at the 2022 Indoor Agtech Innovation Summit.
Lauryl Gonzalez is pursuing her bachelor of science degree at California State University Monterey Bay, (CSUMB), in Business Administration concentrating in marketing, and minoring in Spanish. Lauryl is an intern at From Farms to Incubators.