Vital Farms’ 2022 expansion of its egg washing and packing facility, Egg Central Station, in Springfield, Mo., has been awarded LEED Gold Certification for New Construction and Major Renovations.

Two expansion projects have earned this year’s honors, with the awards to be presented at the Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo in October.

A name on a plaque is more than symbolic, it means accountability mechanisms on building projects are ensured.

For our coverage of Fabulous Food Plants this year, we decided to do something a little bit different in honor of “plants,” aka flora. When we think of food plants, we almost immediately think of processing facilities, but there’s so much more to food production than the processing plant. So, seeing how plant-based foods are altering the ways consumers think about protein, we decided to alter the way we think about food plants.