October 12, 2023

HYVE Participates as Exhibitor at “Worlds of Work” Career Expo

HYVE was an exhibitor at the Central Shenandoah Valley’s “Worlds of Work” Career Expo aimed at 7th grade students across the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia on October 11th at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds.

The event seeks to bring students in to show them the many employment opportunities that exist and to give them a head start on thinking about unique career paths that exist – many of which, they may not know exist or even have remotely considered.

HYVE Grower & Inside Sales Representative Heather Croushorn represented HYVE at the event primarily to show students that unique agricultural opportunities such as Indoor Farming can provide an interesting and challenging way to chart a career path.

In addition to employers ranging from medical, science, manufacturing, communications, and many others, HYVE was happy to participate as it views the event not only as a community service for the students, but also helps to broaden the knowledge of the general public, students, administrators, teachers, and more about Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).

According to Croushorn: “We feel that our participation in this event is important because our location is really an epicenter for traditional agriculture in our state as well as the entire U.S. As an historically important part of agriculture in our country, Rockingham County provides a heritage that gives us a platform to show a coming generation about the viability and uniqueness of commercial farming done on a large scale indoors. When we consider that the general population knows very little about the advances in CEA it becomes increasingly important for those of us already involved to inform a potential workforce about the very realistic possibility that farming as we know it will have a very big supplemental approach to growing that can help fill the void for food in a growing population moving forward. CEA isn’t likely to supplant traditional farming in the near-term, however the two can most certainly co-exist and advances in CEA make it so exciting for a coming generation as they have the opportunity to utilize tools such as artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced technology and more to meet a very real and tangible demand for food while earning a good living in the process.”

No doubt HYVE’s indoor farming table was probably one of the more unique types of businesses represented at the Career Fair. Given the emphasis and leadership positions promoted and coveted for the state by Secretary of Agriculture & Forestry Matthew Lohr and Governor Glenn Youngkin, it was important for HYVE to continue and promote this unique ag experience to the coming generation of potential indoor farmers.

Thanks to Central Shenandoah Valley educators and administrators for planning this event and allowing HYVE to be a small part of helping to further the progress and advance of CEA in the state of Virginia.