About Us
Volunteer Ag Products is a seed, seedling transplant, and fertilizer dealer located in Greenfield, Tennessee. We focus on produce and hemp seed, produce and hemp transplants, and our mustard-based biofumigants and fertilizers. We are constantly looking for the tools our farmers can use to be in front of the competition. We are “Committed to Farmers’ Success.”
Our History
Since 2011 Volunteer Ag Products (VAP) has been selling products to farmers across the eastern United States. Chris Gordon and Jim Elam started VAP selling mustard-based organic biofumigants and fertilizers as well as vegetable seed and transplants to their key customers in the produce world. Since then VAP has grown to take care of a larger customer base in the Eastern United states while trying to use their small town values to deliver a top-of-the-line service for their customers. In 2019 VAP saw the need for a professional seed supplier in the hemp industry and chose to start their hemp seed and plant division. In 2020 Brock Lidy joined Chris Gordon and Jim Elam as an owner and with the help of their team, VAP will continue to expand and work to improve the lives of farmers. Their continued growth is a result of their adamant focus on being “Committed to Farmers’ Success.”
Meet the Team
Chris Gordon
Chris grew up in Sharon, TN on a corn, soybean, and wheat farm and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of TN at Martin in 1996. His Agriculture career started with Terra-Agrilliance in sales and management which lasted for 9 years. At this time, he began working for Helena Chemical Company in sales-management for a period of 5 years. He grew produce for a period of 2 years with Akin & Porter Produce in Greenfield TN and then spent 6 years marketing produce while also entering the produce seed and plant business with Volunteer Ag Products, LLC in 2011. Since 2018 Chris is working solely for Volunteer Ag in Greenfield TN in the seed and plant industry.
Jim Elam
Jim has been active in the agricultural industry for over fifty years. He was a commercial vegetable seed sales representative for over ten years. In the past he has worked for Tennessee Farmers Co-op, Terra, Eden Bioscience, and Siegers Seed Company. As a representative for Co-op and Terra, he worked with row crop farmers. While working for Eden Bioscience, he was primarily with tobacco research. At Siegers Seed Company, he called on commercial vegetable growers in eight states. Now as a co-owner and sales representative at Volunteer Ag Products, he looks forward to serving your needs.
Brock Lidy
Brock grew up in Dieterich, IL on a corn and soybean farm with his family. After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Chemistry minor from Blackburn College, he went to work 7 years for Monsanto Company. He started with their global vegetable business implementing global productions plans and distributing stock seeds and commercial seeds globally. After 2 years, Brock moved into sales for Seminis Vegetable Seeds in the Mid-South/Southern Midwest where he focused on direct, dealer, and processing seed sales by consulting dealers reps, growers, brokers, and processors about the pipeline of products and where they performed the best throughout the territory. In February of 2020 Brock started working for Volunteer Ag Products focused on bringing products and service to their customers.
Rob Beets
Rob grew up working in the nursery business and began his professional career as a greenhouse and woody ornamental grower. He later moved on to the Tennessee Dept of Agriculture’s marketing division where he assisted nursery and produce growers on sales and marketing of their products both domestically and internationally. Before starting with Volunteer Ag Products, he also worked for 10 years for the vegetable seed company Nunhems. He began at Nunhems in the produce chain division promoting varieties and traits beyond the farm gate to foodservice, retail, distributors, fresh-cut companies and other related industry players. He then moved into an account manager role, where he worked with growers, distributors and dealers from Florida to Canada on variety selection and product development. He has a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from the University of Tennessee.
Zeb James
Zeb has been in Agriculture for over 30 years in the sales and marketing of seed coatings, seed, fertilizer, pesticides, transplants and irrigation. His experience provides him a thorough understanding of the complete cropping system and can help growers develop their own programs for their farms. Zeb came to Volunteer Ag Products in 2020 and has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from North Carolina State University.
