When I first read about AppHarvest in the New York Times in 2019, I instantly became very interested in the new start-up. Their motto was indeed infectious to me: Empowered by nature, enabled by technology and driven by people. We’re on a mission to grow healthy foods sustainably in a way that’s better for people and planet. With extreme droughts, raging wildfires, flash floods and a rapidly changing climate threatening agriculture as we know it, out-of-the box thinking Americans like Kentuckian Jonathan Webb got creative. Webb is the son of a Kentucky door-to-door salesman who was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. As we have seen with supply chain problems for all items coming into the US as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, this New Age Farming seems to be a new age for the American farmer as well.

Infusing Jobs & Life into an Economically-Stressed Community

As a registered dietitian and health & wellness specialist for my 50 years in practice, this company seemed like the beginning of a New Age of Farming in Kentucky.  As a Kentuckian, I was especially interested that AppHarvest’s first high-tech indoor farm was going to be located just outside of Morehead, Kentucky in the Appalachian area where poverty & joblessness is an unfortunate fact of life. AppHarvest predicted hiring 285 employees with an annual production of about 40 million pounds of tomatoes. The second “controlled environment” (CEA) farm in Berea, Kentucky will produce leafy plants with nearly 35 million plants at capacity renewing 100 percent every 3 to 4 weeks. A third farm is about ready to start harvesting in Somerset, Kentucky, which has been planted with 1 million strawberry plants and seasonally expected to grow cucumbers as well. And a fourth one that will grow more tomatoes on its way by the end of 2022 in Richmond, Kentucky, which is currently under construction where planting should be starting in November.  

 Nuts & Bolts of AppHarvest

AppHarvest has a controlled environment which leverages sunshine and rainwater and is automated for light, temperature and humidity for effective growing. If they don’t get enough sunshine, a hybrid LED lighting array supplements nature. The farm uses a closed-loop irrigation system which enables a water savings of up to 90% as compared to open-field farming and which helps to avoid pollution from agriculture runoff. In addition, less fertilizer is used.  The AppHarvest growing system is designed to minimize pesticide use by employing a technique called “Integrated Pest Management” that uses good bugs to take care of bad bugs and uses human scouts to identify any pest or plant health issues early on in an effort to prevent them from becoming a larger problem. The vegetables are non-GMO but are not organic. The plant process, however, also helps to minimize pest exposure and offers many of the benefits of organic at a fraction of the cost. Using AppHarvest’s growing strategies can produce up to 30 times the yield of traditional agriculture methods.  

Growing Tall Tomato Plants and Bigger Yields  

In Morehead they can grow nearly 750,000 tomato plants, which began harvesting in January, 2021. AppHarvest’s Morehead facility is among the largest indoor farms in the world. This indoor farm grows these plants to about 30-35 feet tall and they produce for about 10 ½ months out of the year. If you ever have grown tomatoes in a home garden, you know your plants are dwarfs in comparison to what AppHarvest plants are like. The Morehead facility’s specialty tomatoes are Beefsteak and tomatoes on the vine.  Tomatoes are the major dietary source of the antioxidant lycopene, which has been linked to many health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. They are also a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin K and contain some dietary fiber.

High Tech Salad Greens

The Berea farm is a 15-acre high tech salad greens farm with 645,000 square feet with a capacity of growing about 35 million plants at a time which go from seed to maturity in about three to four weeks. The farm may grow as many as 20 types of lettuce and just started commercial shipments for top grocery and food service outlets. The high-tech farm is designed to be a “touchless” growing environment which means it’s automated from pre-seeding to packaging to help improve food safety. The farm’s system will provide onsite washing and will be sold under the new “Queen of Greens®,” washed and ready-to-eat salad packaged brand.

AppHarvest Kentucky Farms  

City                                   Acreage                Product

Morehead, KY                  60 acres                Tomatoes

Berea, KY                         15 acres                 Salad Greens

Somerset, KY                   30 acres                Berries and Cucumbers

Richmond, KY                   60 acres                Tomatoes (operational end of 2022)

 Martha Stewart is on the AppHarvest Board

There are some really great recipes on the AppHarvest website (https://www.appharvest.com/). When I asked about the source of these recipes, I was told by Chief Communications Officer, Travis Parman, that Martha Stewart is on their Board & she graciously allowed several of her recipes to be placed on the site.