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The World's Largest Indoor Farm Is Creating 300 Jobs In Kentucky
The 2.76-million square foot controlled environment agriculture facility is based in Morehead, Eastern Kentucky. A region where unemployment is 44 percent higher than the national average. AppHarvest aims to develop this area into an agricultural technology hub
AppHarvest's new indoor farm in Kentucky is creating jobs and shows an alternative, sustainable form of agriculture and farming.
The world's largest indoor farm just created 300 jobs in Kentucky. | AppHarvest/Instagram
August 21, 2020
High-tech greenhouse developer AppHarvest just opened the world’s largest indoor farm in Kentucky, creating 300 full-time permanent jobs.
The 2.76-million square foot controlled environment agriculture facility is based in Morehead, Eastern Kentucky. A region where unemployment is 44 percent higher than the national average. AppHarvest aims to develop this area into an agricultural technology hub.
“Eastern Kentucky, with its central U.S. location, provides the perfect place to build AppHarvest’s indoor farms,” said Johnathan Webb, the founder, and CEO of AppHarvest. “While also providing much-needed jobs to a ready workforce.”
AppHarvest combines agriculture with cutting edge technology to promote sustainable change within the industry. The new indoor farm drastically reduces the land needed to increase food production. It uses no pesticides and no GMO products.
All water needs are met exclusively by a closed-loop, recycled rainwater system. This also minimizes the water runoff unavoidable with traditional agricultural methods. Overall, AppHarvest’s sustainable greenhouses use 90 percent less water than other farming.
“It’s time for agriculture in America to change,” continued Webb. “The pandemic has demonstrated the need to establish more resilient food systems, and our work is on the forefront of that effort.”
The transportation of fresh produce can have significant carbon emissions.
The Future Of Farming
In addition to job creation, the new farm’s location will also reduce production costs and carbon emissions.
Morehead is less than one day’s drive from 70 percent of the U.S. population. This means a reduction in diesel fuel costs by 80 percent and allows for more competitive pricing against low-cost foreign imports.
AppHarvest recently closed on its $28 million Series C round of fundraising, making a total of over $150 million in just two years. The company has also expanded its board to include investor and author J.D. Vance, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund partner Anna Mason, and AOL co-founder Steve Case.
Impossible Foods CEO and plant-based food proponent David Lee and lifestyle icon and keen vegetable gardener Martha Stewart also sit on the AppHarvest board. Stewart said: “The future of food will be, has to be, growing nutrient-rich and delicious produce closer to where we eat.”
“That means food that tastes better and food that we feel better about consuming,” she added. “AppHarvest is driving us towards that future and working from within Appalachia to elevate the region.”
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Liam writes about environmental and social sustainability and the protection of animals. He has a BA Hons in English Literature and Film and also writes for Sustainable Business Magazine. Liam is interested in intersectional politics and DIY music.
Coronavirus May Lead To More Indoor-Grown Produce Coming To Your Local Supermarkets
Supermarket chain Albertsons and San Francisco-based indoor vertical farm startup Plenty said this week that Plenty will supply its indoor-grown baby kale and other produce eventually to more than 430 stores across California beyond select Albertsons-owned Safeway and other stores in the Bay Area that currently, stock Plenty produce
Aug 13, 2020
Andria Cheng Senior Contributor Retail
I cover retail, from fashion to grocery, and its dance with technology
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted traditional U.S. food and agriculture supply chain and proven to lend a potential growth opportunity for plant-based meat companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. It also may translate to your seeing more produce from indoor vertical farms in the so-called AgTech space.
Supermarket chain Albertsons and San Francisco-based indoor vertical farm startup Plenty said this week that Plenty will supply its indoor-grown baby kale and other produce eventually to more than 430 stores across California beyond select Albertsons-owned Safeway and other stores in the Bay Area that currently, stock Plenty produce.
The startup, which is backed by investors including Softbank, Amazon AMZN 0.0% CEO Jeff Bezos and Google GOOGL +0.6%’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, has raised more than $400 million as of Jan. 1, according to PitchBook. That puts it in the unicorn club of startups with valuation exceeding $1 billion.
When fresh produce demand soared at the start of the pandemic, the companies said Plenty was able to boost production to supply more produce to relieve store shortages.
“When COVID hit, that severely shocked the food chain and distribution centers were closed,” Matt Barnard, Plenty CEO, said on financial network CNBC Wednesday. “There were instances when Plenty was the only thing on the shelf. We were able to prove the extreme reliability of our farms and short food chain with our local farms.”
Like its rivals including AeroFarms and Bowery Farming, these indoor farms make part of the growing crop of AgTech companies that often have some sort of environmental sustainability pitch and tout the use of data science and other technology to increase crop yield and make different parts of agriculture more efficient and traceable. Plenty, for instance, said its vertical indoor farm uses less than 1% of land and 5% of water compared to traditional farming.
In another sign of growing interest in the space, Oracle ORCL -0.3% Co-founder Larry Ellison and physician Dr. David Agus in July formed Sensei Holdings that also includes an indoor-farm AgTech unit.
Investors also look to be taking a growing interest in the space, especially against the uncertain impact of the pandemic and how it may upend the global food supply chain.
AgTech venture capital investment totaled $2.2 billion in the first two quarters of this year, after a record 2019 when $2.7 billion in total was raised, according to a study by Pitchbook and VC firm Finistere Ventures, which also invests in Plenty. This is in sharp contrast to Pitchbook data showing VC funding in the battered-retail sector having slumped by more than half this year.
In the so-called food-tech category, $4.8 billion already has been raised the first six months of this year, compared to $7 billion in total last year, the research shows. Most of the funding for both the food and agriculture tech spaces this year came in the second quarter when Covid-19 escalated to become a global crisis.
As consumers increased online orders, that translated to delivery companies Deliveroo, DoorDash and Instacart rounding out the top four startups, along with plant-based meat company Impossible Foods, in getting most VC funding in the first half of this year, according to the study. A case in point, for publicly-traded Uber UBER -1.2%, Uber Eats-led delivery business has beat its mainstay ride-sharing bookings.
After the pandemic idled or shut meat plants and caused spikes in prices, Beyond Meat, which went public last year, said in May it would introduce “heavier discounting against animal protein.” Company CEO Ethan Brown said then meat supply disruptions gave Beyond “an opportunity for consumers to be aware of a different model.”
The pandemic continues to sow its disruptive effect across different sectors of the economy.
Related on Forbes: As coronavirus batters retailers, mall owner Simon Property sees an opportunity in bankrupt chains
Related on Forbes: Uber’s biggest business is officially no longer ride sharing
Lead photo: With coronavirus having disrupted food supply chain, that may provide more growth opportunities for ... [+] LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
Martha Stewart, J.D. Vance And Impossible Foods’ David Lee Join Board of AgTech Leader AppHarvest
Company adds executives from The Carlyle Group, Impossible Foods and raises new round from sustainability-focused investors such as Jeffrey Ubben and James Murdoch as COVID-19 heightens need for more resilient domestic supply chains
The company adds executives from The Carlyle Group, Impossible Foods and raises new round from sustainability-focused investors such as Jeffrey Ubben and James Murdoch as COVID-19 heightens need for more resilient domestic supply chains
AUGUST 6, 2020 – MOREHEAD, KENTUCKY – AppHarvest announced today 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 as it prepares to open one of the world’s largest indoor farms this fall in Morehead, KY. 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 amidst 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 said. “That means food that tastes better and food that we feel better about consuming. AppHarvest is driving us towards that future and working from within Appalachia to elevate the region.”
Added 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.”
Added 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, will also 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 said.
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 percent more residents are unemployed than the national average.
With its vision to create America’s AgTech capital in Appalachia, AppHarvest has been recognized for its focus on social good. The company has been certified by the independent non-profit B Lab as a
B Corporation, passing a rigorous audit of its sustainability practices.
AppHarvest is also announcing the hires of Marcella Butler as the company’s first Chief People Officer, Jackie Roberts as its first Chief Sustainability Officer, and Geof Rochester as its first Chief Marketing Officer. Butler joins AppHarvest after serving as Impossible Foods' first Chief People Officer, where she led the tripling of employees to more than 650 individuals. Prior to joining Impossible Foods, she worked at Google, first in People Operations, followed by Corporate Development, where she led global acquisition due diligence and integration activities. Roberts joins AppHarvest from The Carlyle Group, where her roles included Chief Sustainability Officer. Prior to The Carlyle Group, she served in several senior roles at the Environmental Defense Fund. Rochester, who has decades of experience in marketing and corporate social responsibility, previously served as Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer of The Nature Conservancy with prior work at WWE, Showtime, Comcast, and Procter & Gamble.
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 over two years.
Narya, the new venture capital firm co-founded by Vance and Colin Greenspon as well as backed by leading entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, led the investment round with participation from existing investors ValueAct Capital’s Spring Fund, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Equilibrium, which has provided nearly $100 million in project financing to date.
New investors include Lupa Systems, the private investment firm founded last year by James Murdoch (who along with the ValueAct Spring Fund and Equilibrium, are leading the way for venture’s expansion into sustainability-focused investments); Breyer Capital, founded by early Facebook investor Jim Breyer; food and agriculture fund S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth); Black Capital, led by NBA legend Kevin Johnson; and Endeavor Catalyst, the co-investment vehicle through which Endeavor invests into companies founded by its entrepreneurs. Endeavor selected Webb as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2019.
“AppHarvest is poised to be a leader of the modern agricultural transformation, and we’re enthused to be a part of its upcoming launch and growth phases both in the U.S. and internationally,” said Frederic Michel, Partner at Lupa Systems. “The team is developing a compelling model that can respond rapidly to the needs for efficiency, sustainability, quality, and resiliency in the food sector today.”
The Series C funding round will allow the company to continue to recruit top-tier talent from around the globe as it prepares to build additional farms throughout Central Appalachia.
About AppHarvest
AppHarvest is building some of the world’s largest indoor farms, combining conventional agricultural techniques with today’s technology to grow non-GMO, chemical-free fruits and vegetables to be sold to the top 25 U.S. grocers. The company has developed a unique system to reduce water usage by 90% compared to typical farms, as a 10-acre, on-site rainwater retention pond pairs with sophisticated circular irrigation systems. The system also eliminates agricultural runoff entirely. By locating within Appalachia, AppHarvest benefits from being less than a day’s drive to 70% of the U.S. population. That lowers diesel use in transportation costs by 80%, allowing the company's fresher produce to compete against low-cost foreign imports.