RINGGOLD, Va. â Elected officials from Pittsylvania County and the City of Danville, along with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Virginia Secretary of Agriculture Bettina Ring and other state and community leaders, joined AeroFarms representatives on Thursday for a groundbreaking ceremony for its newest 136,000 square foot indoor vertical farming facility in Ringgold â the worldâs largest aeroponic vertical farm.
AeroFarms, a Certified B Corporation and leader in vertical farming, has developed its own proprietary growing technology to be able to grow produce all year round with annual productivity up to 390 times greater than traditional field farming. Once completed, the new facility, located in the Cane Creek Industrial Centre, will be the largest and most sophisticated aeroponic vertical farm in the world, and is part of AeroFarmsâ expansion plans to address some of our most pressing agriculture and environmental challenges.
In some respects, measures of the pandemic have leveled out in Virginia.
Ordinarily that would be a sign of encouragement. However, with ongoing vaccinations, these numbers should be dropping more rapidly, the latest University of Virginia report states.
âCase, hospitalization and death rates in Virginia have not changed much over the last several weeks,â researchers at UVaâs Biocomplexity Institute said in Fridayâs report. âEarlier in the pandemic stable measures would have been viewed positively.â
The report does point to a bright spot: Older adults â the group of Virginians with the highest vaccination rates â are experiencing fewer cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Entrepreneurship is a powerful tool for growing local, regional and global economies, but sometimes it can be overlooked as a career pathway. The upcoming SOVA Youth Entrepreneurship Kickoff will help eighth-12th grade students in Southern Virginia understand the entrepreneurial mindset and explore the risks and rewards of starting a business.
The SOVA Youth Entrepreneurship Kickoff is a virtual event taking place on Wednesday, May 5, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. using the Zoom video meeting platform. The event is free to attend, and all students in grades 8-12 are encouraged to participate, no matter what academic path they are on or what level of interest they currently have in starting a business.Â
Mon Apr 26 2021 | Laurel Pfahler | College
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROANOKE ATHLETICS
Emerson Foster has 36 goals through 11 games for Roanoke.
Conference champions will be decided this week, and the Division III women’s tournament field will be set one week from today with the selection show streaming on NCAA.com beginning at 10:30 a.m. May 3.
While most conference champions will be determined by a tournament or at least a one-game playoff that won’t be the case for the Centennial Conference, in which the regular-season standings decide the winner. However, No. 1 Franklin & Marshall and No. 5 Gettysburg meet Saturday in what essentially could be the championship game, as both enter the week undefeated.