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General News: County Backing for Organic Food Company
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| A sampling of the plants and the hydroponic system where they will grow. |
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| Water will be syphoned from fish tanks like this one and used to irrigate the plants. |
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| Thomas Endres talks about the company's commitment to veteran while his partner, Michael Finnegan, looks on. |
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| People read descriptions of aquaponics and hydroponics, an ancient system of agriculture. |
September 09, 2011
Officials from throughout Orange County gathered in New Windsor Thursday for the official ground-breaking ceremony of an organic fish, vegetable and fertilizer production facility that promises to employ 120 people, 51 percent of them veterans, when it is in full operation next year.
Continental Organics is using an innovative process of aquaponics and hydroponics that raises fish, then use the waste water as fertilizer to grow green vegetables hydroponically, without soil in the nutrient rich water. The sustainable agriculture process will also produce solid fertilizer that will be sold commercially.
Michael Finnegan and his partner, Thomas Endres, came up with the ambitious plan to build the facility on the site of the former Belle’s Catering on Mt. Airy Road and began looking for support from local officials, starting with State Senator Bill Larkin. Larkin told the crowd at the ground-breaking ceremony that he was excited by the proposal, particularly the focus on hiring veterans. “These men and women coming home really need our attention” Larkin said. “We are going to open our arms to them and say ‘come here.’”
Finnegan and Endres got the backing of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency and it’s Business Accelerator program, with financial backing from Provident Bank and the Empire State Development Corporation to realize its plan. Storm King Contracting is overseeing the construction work that has already started on the 9,000-square-foot aquaculture room and 13 greenhouses measuring 22,000 square feet each. A larger greenhouse will dominate the front of the complex, and in another building in the back, fertilizer will be packed for shipping.
Finnegan talked about the demand for the company’s product, with an agreement already in place to sell through the Hunt’s Point market, the world’s largest food distribution center. The company intends to raise tilapia from fingerling stage through adulthood and grow lettuces, chard, scallions and a variety of other greens.
Michael Finnegan emphasized that sustainability is a core value of the Contintental Organics, equally important as the goal of hiring veterans. Thomas Endres, who served 27 years as an Army pilot before becoming the Director of Facilities at West Point, said the company wants to be a leader in hiring vets, “to give them hope, not a job, but a career.”
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