In April 2023, AeroFarms, a vertical farming operation, transferred its New Jersey commercial production to its commercial farm at Cane Creek Centre, a joint industrial park for the city of Danville and Pittsylvania County, in Ringgold. A few months later, AeroFarms filed for voluntary protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; however, the company pledged to keep up its efforts in Southern Virginia.

Putting all their eggs in the Danville-area basket, however, doesn’t seem to have worked out. In a letter to the to the state’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, aka Virginia Works, dated Dec. 11, Carlos Nunez, vice president of human resources for AeroFarms, explained that New AeroFarms, an entity formed in Virginia in 2023 connected to a Cane Creek Centre address, and AeroFarms Danville Farming Co., an entity formed in 2024 in Virginia connected to the same address, plans to end operations Friday at the Ringgold facility. The letter states 173 employees will lose their jobs. Of those, 127 workers live in Virginia.