Green Planet Missouri hopes to bring longtime growing experience to Maryville greenhouse

Managing Director and CFO Jeremy Capussi of JC Fresh Farms said their company wants to take their 60 plus years in cultivation experience further by having a greenhouse cannabis operation in Northwest Missouri. Capussi has applied for one cultivation license in Maryville as Green Planet Missouri.

“Getting into the medical cannabis space is something that has become a passion for me the same way the vegetable industry has been my passion,” Capussi said. “Growing and selling fresh produce and encouraging consumers to eat healthily has been a blessing in my life as I feel like our company is making a difference in the world. I have been farming my whole life outside and inside which I want to continue that for many generations to come. I have studied the medical cannabis for a very long time and because Canada is federally legal since October 2018, I have learned so much about the new industry and gained tons of experiences in already growing it in Canada.”

Capussi said they teamed up with the local government and university to chart out their cultivation application.

“We are very technologically advanced in our greenhouses,” Capussi said. “They’re big on people staying in the area after school. We need more people out of school.”

Capussi’s partner applied for a dispensary license in Southwest Missouri. Capussi’s family started their original farms in the 1950s – he’s the third generation of his family to farm. The Capussis switched their farming from outdoors to indoors in the 1970s. Their primary greenhouse facilities are in Kingsville, Ontario, where they grow vegetables as a major North American produce exporter.

“We believe we’ve got the experience to do some good over there,” Capussi said. “The biggest thing we’ve encountered is the buy local feel for each state. Retailers want more local supply.”

Capussi said the biggest challenge to the industry in Missouri is experience in growing.

“When Canada went legal, they had medical – a lot of companies growing indoors in warehouses without the background to do it,” he said. “On the cultivation side, it comes down to experience. We’ve had the biggest companies in Canada bring their facilities [to Kingsville] because we have the know-how and experience eon how to grow. That’s why our area was such an attraction. The county wants us there because we have that experience.”

Capussi said Maryville has a good climate in the wintertime for greenhouse cultivation in order to grow through the winters.

“You don’t want too mild of a winter,” Capussi said. “What is nice about a cold winter is it breaks the bugs and diseases. We’ve seen that Warner winters have more bugs and diseases. For us, we don’t care about rain – sunlight and climate have always been our thing. We create our own environments. The only thing we can’t control is heat, but we do put lights in our facilities.”

Capussi said their cultivation application for Missouri, Green Planet Missouri, will cultivate a variety of strains, if licensed. Overall, Capussi said they plan to continue priorities that made his family successful in the produce industry.

“The biggest thing you need to know is experience and relationships,” Capussi said. “We deal with customers and logistics. We have the experience and the know how. Patients want the best quality and service. We’ve already been growing, branding, deadline with patients and consumers and teaching them. We’ve teamed up with a lot of nurses and doctors to teach them the benefits of cannabis. The biggest thing Missouri is going to need is for people to understand all the health benefits of what cannabis can do.”

Green Planet Missouri is one cultivation application of 554. Missouri will award 60 cultivation licenses, 86 manufacturing licenses, and 192 dispensary licenses.