Q&A: X-Caliber's Jordan Blanchard discusses Hardee Fresh and upside of vertical farming

Produce Grower: With Hardee specifically, what did the process of vetting this company look like? 

Jordan Blanchard: So, we have what are called "originators" at X-Caliber, and we have five different companies under one umbrella. Hardee Fresh was brought in by one of our originators on the commercial PACE side. Georgia is not eligible for PACE, but it's not uncommon for people to start with PACE, especially for energy intensive projects like CEA.

[Editor's note: PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy or more specifically Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE). An earlier version of this article referred to a different PACE.]

PG: What about Hardee Fresh made them interesting to you guys? 

JB: One of the things is that they have an operating plant in Florida already. In the world of USDA, we do a lot of start-ups, but going from conceptual to operating plant is riskier than conceptual to pilot plant to operating plant. Their facility in Florida is not really a pilot plant, but it's much smaller than the Georgia facility and allowed them to work out the kinks. That was a big selling point. 

One of the most impressive things about Hardee Fresh is that Halton Peters is one of the most educated people you'll find in all of anywhere, not even just CEA. His educational credentials are extremely impressive. 

PG: You mentioned that a proof of concept so to speak is helpful. What about their farm stood out as something that could be scaled up? 

JB: One is the size. Two is access to reasonable cost power - that's a big thing that we look for. That's one of the major inputs. Three is that our company wants demonstrably experienced owners. So if someone, for example, wasn't already in this business, it's probably not something we would consider. 

PG: What do you make of the CEA and vertical farming space right now? 

PG: Do you delineate between more traditional CEA and vertical farming? 

JB: We do. We are most involved in vertical farming because we see the practical benefits of being able to reduce the time and the cost of transportation. Vertical farming is just more well suited to be in the Eastern U.S. population centers. We don't have any kind of traditional greenhouses in our portfolio or under consideration at this point.