A company called Nebraska Vegetable and Protein had four employees in fall 2024, when a fire brought it to the ground.It was no small operation. They lost 80,000 salmon in the fire, Kiel VanderVeen of Nebraska City said.Now VanderVeen founded a new company: Good Life Agriculture. It too will deal with salmon, starting with a processing facility in the first phase, with hopes for a second phase to raise salmon on site.The new processing facility could process 70,000 tons of salmon annually, VanderVeen said. On the family farm, Nebraska Vegetable and Protein could raise 25 tons of salmon a year and distribute it within a 60-mile radius. That was before the fire destroyed what VanderVeen and his wife Mimi had built. “I kind of try to blur out that time. It was pretty rough,” Vanderveen said. But, “the community support was just absolutely incredible,” he said.VanderVeen founded Good Life Agriculture and is optimistic about breaking ground this summer on a new 300,000-square-foot facility. “A little bit bigger,” VanderVeen said with a laugh. He said the $272 million first phase aims to fill a regional gap in the fish processing market.It would bring more than 60 jobs to the community, he said.”That’s just massive for a small town,” said Lisa Walker, the head of the Nebraska City Area Economic Development Corporation. “And it’s being brought to us by somebody who grew up here.” Walker said the facility received a $1 million boost from Nebraska’s Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act.If everything goes as planned, VanderVeen said the first phase will open in the fall of 2027. After securing contracts with grocery stores, raising the salmon on-site will be phase two.”We don’t want anyone within 250 miles eating the fish older than ten days,” VanderVeen said.
A company called Nebraska Vegetable and Protein had four employees in fall 2024, when a fire brought it to the ground.
It was no small operation. They lost 80,000 salmon in the fire, Kiel VanderVeen of Nebraska City said.
Now VanderVeen founded a new company: Good Life Agriculture. It too will deal with salmon, starting with a processing facility in the first phase, with hopes for a second phase to raise salmon on site.
The new processing facility could process 70,000 tons of salmon annually, VanderVeen said.
On the family farm, Nebraska Vegetable and Protein could raise 25 tons of salmon a year and distribute it within a 60-mile radius.
That was before the fire destroyed what VanderVeen and his wife Mimi had built.
“I kind of try to blur out that time. It was pretty rough,” Vanderveen said.
But, “the community support was just absolutely incredible,” he said.
VanderVeen founded Good Life Agriculture and is optimistic about breaking ground this summer on a new 300,000-square-foot facility.
“A little bit bigger,” VanderVeen said with a laugh. He said the $272 million first phase aims to fill a regional gap in the fish processing market.
It would bring more than 60 jobs to the community, he said.
“That’s just massive for a small town,” said Lisa Walker, the head of the Nebraska City Area Economic Development Corporation. “And it’s being brought to us by somebody who grew up here.”
Walker said the facility received a $1 million boost from Nebraska’s Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act.
If everything goes as planned, VanderVeen said the first phase will open in the fall of 2027. After securing contracts with grocery stores, raising the salmon on-site will be phase two.
“We don’t want anyone within 250 miles eating the fish older than ten days,” VanderVeen said.
