7/4/2023 0 Comments App harvest“People can vote with their dollars and vote at the grocery store and decide what want to put on the table,” Webb adds. We want food that tastes really good and that we can afford. We want food that is sustainable, free of chemicals. “I think we all want better for us, for our families, for our friends. The operation’s tomatoes will be comparable in price to traditionally grown tomatoes, which board member Martha Stewart says is part of what’s exciting about the crops. population within a day’s drive means less travel time.” Being in Appalachia, being close to 70% of the U.S. When you grow and ship a long way, there’s a lot of loss along that system. “One other aspect of being resource efficient is the challenge of food waste. “We need new approaches to growing food that are most resource efficient,” she says. Roberts predicts there are only 50 to 70 years worth of quality topsoil left for human agriculture. “Most produce is bred for transportation, so you don’t get the nutrient density that you get with our tomatoes.”Īnd harvesting produce at peak ripeness and shipping it out quickly means less overall wear and tear on the crops, says Jackie Roberts, chief sustainability officer, noting that 30% to 40% of what we grow never makes it to the grocery store shelves due to supply chain issues. “Those same men and women that powered the country in the coal mines are working with us here in this facility,” Webb says.ĪppHarvest’s crops are grown from naturally bred seeds that were optimized for both flavor and nutrients, which Webb says sets them apart from most tomatoes you’ll find at the grocery store. AppHarvest follows social distance guidelines at its first vertical farm.Įastern Kentucky was once coal country, but AppHarvest is hoping to transform it into an area known for feeding the U.S. The Kentucky location is also important as the company is focused on building “operations and large-scale indoor farms in economically disadvantaged areas of Appalachia,” says Travis Parman, chief communications officer. “So to build these facilities in an area where we can collect all that rain water, package it up into a fruit vegetable and send it out to the consumers is critically important in the long-term resiliency of this company.” The Morehead location is ideal for the company’s first facility thanks to abundant rainfall and the fact that shipments can reach 70% of the U.S. “We look forward to every American having the ability to access fresh, healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables,” says Jonathan Webb, founder and CEO. The flagship AppHarvest facility is expected to produce about 45 million pounds of tomatoes each year from about 720,000 beefsteak and vine tomato plants. “I’ve long known that the consumer is ready and if you could just give the consumer a better product … the consumer will determine the future for the better,” says David Lee, board member and president. And in January, AppHarvest’s first crop of beefsteak tomatoes hit retail shelves in stores like Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Food City and Meijer, where they are co-branded with Sunset Grown. The company’s goal is to provide fresher, healthier, tastier food to Americans while also maintaining high standards of environmental stewardship, employee care and sustainable growth. The 60-acre operation, which opened in October, is currently growing beefsteak tomatoes and will soon also be harvesting tomatoes on the vine. Morehead only has about 7,000 residents but it’s home to hundreds of thousands of tomato plants that are thriving in a very unique vertical farm at AppHarvest’s first growing facility. Just a couple of hours outside Louisville, Kentucky, in the small city of Morehead, one of the biggest and most ambitious vertical farm companies in the U.S.
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