Apogee Farms is a fresh produce company committed to setting a nationwide urban farming standard. Apogee was awarded a 10,500 square foot parcel located in the H street corridor of Northwest Washington DC through the Urban Farming Land Lease Program. With strategic planning, community benefit and community engagement we are transforming this vacant space into a vibrant hyper-local food source to provide our community with year round freshness, quality and nutrition while addressing environmental concerns of traditional agriculture.
We are local and we care about the health of our local D.C. residents. Our produce can be harvested, packaged, and consumed in the same day passing that freshness directly to our consumers. Apogee Farms’ controlled environment cultivation strategies benefit our consumer with the elimination of fertilizer and pesticides use while preserving precious water and soil resources. Apogees’ close proximity to our customers provides consumers with nutritionally dense, long lasting greens that not only taste great they are sustainably grown and they are great for you.
TEAM BIOS
Thomas Langan, Chief Executive Officer, a tenacious entrepreneur, started a composting company in 2012 collecting food scraps and yard waste for compost resale. Although the company didn’t make it through startup phase, Thomas learned many key lessons in starting and operating a business. In 2013 Mr. Langan moved to Colorado to pursue a career growing cannabis. Thomas began as a personal caregiver cultivator operating under a ninety-nine plant count license. As the industry established itself Mr. Langan became an assistant grower and a eventually a lead grower with a medical cannabis cultivator (High Country Healing) where he spent three years perfecting his horticulture skills. Eventually Thomas was asked to join Sawatch Hemp to convert a nursery greenhouse into a hemp farm. Thomas has worked in both greenhouse and warehouse grows as a supervisor with a focus in quality and yield. Thomas has mastered operating CEA control systems. From Small scale artisan medical cannabis to large scale outdoor hemp. Mr. Langan currently leads the DC Food Policy Council Urban Agriculture work-in group. Thomas has been instrumental in latest urban farming legislation testifying to DC City Council and leading negotiations with Department of General Services. (LinkedIn)
Niraj Ray, Chief Agriculture Officer, is an international pioneer of urban and rural vertical agriculture. From his first backyard garden in Daytona Beach, Florida to vertical gardens for underserved school in Washington, DC and strawberry farms in Maharastra, India, he is determined on finding innovative and sustainable ways to bring fresh produce to communities that need it. He is an educator and agricultural expert with a mission to transform urban food deserts into thriving local food systems. (LinkedIn)
Colin Diefenbach, Chief Financial Officer, has managed operations of millions of square feet of commercial office and industrial real estate throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area for both institutional and private investment clients. Having overseen all facets of building operations, including financial reporting, budgeting, capital projects, new tenant construction, lease administration, lease negotiations and engineering staff. Colin will be responsible for land identification and acquisition as well as acting as CFO for Apogee Farms. Colin holds his Masters in Real Estate Finance from Georgetown University.