Fresh Greenhouse Vegetable Production Exploding in Appalachia
AppHarvest has officially opened its new 2.76-million-square-foot high-tech greenhouse in Appalachia. The Morehead, KY, facility is the first of a series designed to redefine American agriculture by growing fruits and vegetables closer to the people eating them.
AppHarvest’s first harvest of tomatoes is expected to be available in early 2021 at leading grocers and restaurants. Tomatoes are AppHarvest’s first crop, as more than 60% of America’s fresh tomatoes were imported in 2019, an increase of almost 50% over the past decade.
The new greenhouse opening follows another recent announcement that AppHarvest has already broken ground on a second controlled environment agriculture facility. Located in nearby Richmond, KY, the facility will be comparable in size to the company’s flagship operation in Morehead, KY.
AppHarvest, which is both a legal public benefit corporation and certified B Corp, expects to create more than 300 jobs at its Morehead farm in Appalachia, which has long trailed national employment trends due to the decline of the coal industry. In just over two years, AppHarvest attracted more than $150 million in investment into the region and announced on September 29 a definitive agreement for a business combination with publicly traded special purpose acquisition company Novus Capital Corporation. The combination, which is expected to close late in the fourth quarter of 2020 or early in the first quarter of 2021, will provide $475 million of gross proceeds to the company, including $375 million fully committed common stock PIPE at $10.00 per share anchored by existing and new investors – including Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC, Inclusive Capital, and Novus Capital Corporation.
“It’s far past time for American agriculture to change,” says AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb. “The pandemic has revealed just how fragile our food system is, and we’re working at the forefront of changing so much that’s wrong with the status quo.”
The plethora of ways that AppHarvest is different than traditional agriculture includes the following:
- The Morehead farm is designed to reduce water usage by 90% compared to traditional open-field agriculture due to a unique circular irrigation system that pairs with a 10-acre rainwater retention pond. Because the system uses only rainwater, the farm is designed to eliminate the scourge of agricultural runoff, which contributes to toxic algae blooms.
- By locating in Appalachia, the company is within a day’s drive to nearly 70% of the U.S. population, reducing transportation costs by up to 80% compared to existing growers in Mexico and the Southwestern U.S.
- The company’s first farm benefits from being located in water-rich Kentucky, which has seen record rainfall in recent years. That’s in contrast to America’s vegetable production concentration in Arizona and California, states that continue to confront water scarcity and climate disruptions.
- AppHarvest has strong relationships with leading AgTech universities and companies in the Netherlands, which is the world’s AgTech leader. Despite having a land mass roughly the size of Eastern Kentucky, the country is the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter behind only the U.S.
AppHarvest’s investors include Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Inclusive Capital Partners, Equilibrium, Narya Capital, Lupa Systems, Breyer Capital, and Endeavor Catalyst. Board members include food icon Martha Stewart, Narya Capital Co-Founder and Partner JD Vance, Impossible Foods Chief Financial Officer David Lee, and impact investor Jeff Ubben.
Subscribe to eNewsletter
