Horses, Bourbon...and Tomatoes? AppHarvest Is Putting Kentucky on the Map

The AppHarvest facility created about 500 jobs. It cost around $150 million to build in Morehead, which has a population of nearly 7,000, in Rowan County. Its 60-acre high-tech indoor farm is so massive that it was recognized as the ninth-largest building in the world when it opened in October 2020. And it’s only the beginning; expansion plans are underway, according to Webb.

Protecting the environment has always been a concern for Webb. He is a 2008 graduate of the business program at the University of Kentucky. His first job out of college was building solar grids on Defense Department land during the Obama administration. Having grown up in Appalachia, Webb was well aware of food insecurity issues and eventually felt drawn to do his part to save the planet. “By 2050, the world will need up to 70% more food than it currently produces to feed a predicted 9.7 billion people,” he explains. “The solution was in a 2017 National Geographic article highlighting enormous Dutch greenhouses that provide huge quantities of food year-round with a smaller square footage than traditional farming.”

How Webb Started AppHarvest From Seed

So Webb quit his job in Washington, D.C., moved back to Kentucky, and got to work creating AppHarvest. “We have to figure out how to grow a lot more food with a lot fewer resources, all the while in the middle of climate disruption,” says Webb. “We can do that by using technology.” He put together a management team and board of directors within three years with members from the Environmental Defense Fund, Impossible Foods, and even famed lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

“To get to 50% to 70% more food, as we currently grow it, we would need a second planet Earth,” notes Webb. “If AppHarvest can do half of what we are talking about, I believe it can be one of the largest food and agricultural companies in my lifetime.”

According to Webb, much like electric cars and renewable energy grids, AppHarvest’s “controlled-environment agriculture” is the next step in the evolution of tech-laden solutions to the world’s environmental concerns. This type of environmentally friendly facility is a refreshing change for an area that has historically relied on the coal industry — a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Establishing Roots in Kentucky

The company believes Kentucky is the perfect place to grow its roots. “The location cuts down on shipping costs,” shares Webb. “Since 70% of the U.S. is within a day’s drive of Kentucky, we are reducing transportation emissions by as much as 80%.” Plus, their 50/50 mix of standard bulbs and LED lights helped reduce their electricity consumption by 20%.

ApppHarvest is a dream come true for Webb. He prides himself on providing jobs for the local community. “I personally believe the hardest working men and women in the U.S. are in eastern Kentucky,” he says. “We’re having the global food security conversation on a farm in freaking Morehead, and the brightest people in the world are going to be part of these conversations. I’m a huge fan of underdogs. We’re the first publicly traded company in this sector, and we’re in rural America.” AppHarvest (Nasdaq: APPH) went public on Feb. 1, 2021.

Just one of AppHarvest’s high-tech indoor farms can grow approximately 720,000 plants. Those plants are expected to yield up to 40 million pounds of tomatoes annually. Science and technology work together to increase the size of a bountiful harvest of both beefsteak tomatoes and tomatoes sold on the vine. Webb explains that each tomato plant is carefully monitored by futuristic farmers who constantly use the data to adjust the temperature, water, light, and nutrient levels.