| AppHarvest, Inc. | |
| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Farming, vertical farming, hydroponic farming |
| Hq Location: | Morehead, Kentucky |
| Key People: | Jonathan Webb (CEO) |
AppHarvest, Inc. is an American food production company developing and operating indoor farms in Appalachia. The company operates a 60-acre tomato farm in Morehead, Kentucky,[1] [2] with plans to operate an additional 3 farms across Kentucky.[3] [4]
Founded by Jonathan Webb, the company aims to use Kentucky's central geographic location to reduce carbon emissions, delivering produce to Midwest and East Coast markets. AppHarvest's greenhouses aim to primarily use sunlight in lieu of LEDs for growing plants hydroponically.[5]
AppHarvest attracted notable figures to its board, including Martha Stewart, activist investor Jeffrey Ubben, former Impossible Foods CFO David Lee, and J.D. Vance, the venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy, who later became a United States senator from Ohio, and 2024 vice presidential nominee.
The company became publicly listed via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Novus Capital Corp in 2020.[6] Since that time, the company's stock has lost more than ninety-five percent of its value, prompting increased criticism of the company's management and operations. On July 24, 2023, AppHarvest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[7] As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, AppHarvest's greenhouses were sold off. Its Morehead and Richmond facilities were sold to Equilibrium Capital, a long-time investor in the company, while its Somerset facility was sold to Bosch Growers and its Berea facility was sold to Mastronardi.[8]
AppHarvest, Inc. was covered in a Grist investigative report and was found to host an unsafe work environment where workers faced extreme heat inside the greenhouses, with temperatures sometimes reaching 155 degrees Fahrenheit, causing health issues.[10] Contract workers outnumbered local employees and had fewer benefits, contrary to the company's original pledge to help the local economy. Multiple safety complaints were filed about the heat, mold, and broken equipment in the workplace, but workers said issues were not adequately addressed.
As of November 2022, five federal lawsuits have been filed against AppHarvest by its shareholders due to dissatisfaction with the significant decline in the company's stock price and allegations of fraud.[11] Shareholders claim that AppHarvest's executives misrepresented the company's preparedness for its launch to investors and regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, the lawsuits allege that while these misleading actions took place, top executives were awarded substantial compensation in the form of millions of dollars.
In an August 2024 investigation[12] CNN states that "Despite promising local jobs, the company eventually began contracting migrant workers from Mexico, Guatemala and other countries." The report quotes Shelby Hester, an AppHarvest crop care specialist, saying "They brought Mitch McConnell into the greenhouse, and they sent every single Hispanic worker home before he got there. He then proceeded to have a speech about how we were taking the jobs from the Mexicans."