Why this VF expert transitioned from grower to supporter

One person who has recently made this shift is Kevin Biernacki. With over 20 years of experience, Biernacki has a wealth of knowledge on growing and vertical farming. Now, Kevin uses his expertise to help other growers in his new role with vertical farming solutions provider Montel.

Kevin's Story

Biernacki began his career in the cannabis industry as a grower in Humboldt, California, the epicenter of the cannabis world at the time. He dedicated the majority of his professional life to this endeavor.

After working in California, Biernacki moved back to his hometown of Las Vegas to develop The Grove, a cannabis dispensary and grow facility. The Grove focuses on providing natural, vertically farmed cannabis products. Kevin helped to develop the 26,600 sq. ft. indoor facility, which, in his words, was the most state-of-the-art cannabis facility in the world at the time of its founding.

The Grove was early to the LED technology game, using only LED lights to grow crops, and also to the vertical farming market, which was in its infancy at the time. Biernacki recalls his time there as very experimental and exciting, and he enjoyed pushing boundaries in the industry.

In early 2022, Biernacki made a major career shift when he accepted a role with Montel as their new Grower Liaison and Regional Sales Manager in Western North America. As Biernacki tells it, he was excited about the opportunity to spend less time in grow facilities and more time on the business end of operating indoor farms. "It was nice to move into sales and be able to immediately get to travel and see new things and cultivations and see new stuff that's happening."

Reflecting on the Past and Considering the Future for Cannabis

Biernacki believes that despite having worked in the field for decades, the cannabis industry is still nascent and has great potential for growth. "Shortly after Las Vegas legalized cannabis, it was such a new market that everyone still had this kind of basement or garage mentality of how to operate. There's nothing like operating a full, industrial-size operation. What's changed more than anything is the understanding of how to go from several hundred plants to several thousand plants at a time."

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Photo: Kevin working with Montel's racks in a grow facility. Courtesy of Agritecture

Source: Agritecture