Martha Stewart Among Big Names Joining AppHarvest Team
August 13, 2020 
AppHarvest, a startup greenhouse vegetable operation set to open this fall in Kentucky, has announced that food entrepreneur and icon Martha Stewart, Impossible Foods Chief Financial Officer David Lee, and best-selling author and investor J.D. Vance have joined the company’s Board of Directors. Starting with non-GMO tomatoes, AppHarvest’s farms will provide freshly grown American fruits and vegetables for national grocers, meeting the enormous and growing demand for locally grown produce amid the supply chain challenges created by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“The future of food will be, has to be, growing nutrient-rich and delicious produce closer to where we eat,” Stewart says. “That means food that tastes better and food that we feel better about consuming. AppHarvest is driving us toward that future and working from within Appalachia to elevate the region.”
Adds Vance: “The last few months have taught us that our food system is a little more precarious than we realized. AppHarvest will change that, and it will do so by building a sustainable, durable business in Appalachia, and investing in the people who call it home.”
Adds Lee: “AppHarvest’s innovative approach to agriculture has the potential to dramatically change the way we get our produce and the impact our food has on the natural environment. I’m excited to join their mission as they enter this next phase of growth.”
Anna Mason, Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, the fund led by AOL Co-founder Steve Case to back companies outside of Silicon Valley, also will join the Board.
“AppHarvest’s rapid expansion and job creation is exactly what Rise of the Rest envisioned with its focus on helping companies in Middle America grow,” Mason says.
Inspired by the belief that the technology already exists today to grow dramatically more food, with far fewer resources, AppHarvest’s indoor farms reduce the need for acreage, use no harmful pesticides, lessen fuel used in shipping, and are the first of their size that will rely entirely on recycled rainwater for all water needs. AppHarvest’s closed-loop water system eliminates agricultural runoff common in open-field agriculture. This is critical as the U.S. ramps up efforts to secure food systems that can withstand health and climate disruptions.
“It’s time for agriculture in America to change,” said AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb. “The pandemic has demonstrated the need to establish more resilient food systems, and our work is on the forefront of that effort. Eastern Kentucky, with its central U.S. location, provides the perfect place to build AppHarvest’s indoor farms while also providing much needed jobs to a ready workforce.”
AppHarvest’s 2.76-million-square-foot controlled environment agriculture facility has already created 100 construction jobs and will create more than 300 full-time permanent jobs for residents of Eastern Kentucky, where 44% more residents are unemployed than the national average.
AppHarvest’s Board and staff additions come as the company closes its $28 million Series C funding round. Combined with the company’s prior funding rounds, including project financing, AppHarvest has attracted more than $150 million in investment in just more than two years.
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