AppHarvest tomatoes being grown in their Morehead, Ky. facility

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An indoor farming company based in eastern Kentucky — and backed by Martha Stewart — has begun shipping its first harvest of tomatoes nationwide. 

Located in Morehead, Kentucky, AppHarvest combines agriculture and technology to grow fresh fruits and vegetables indoors. Soon, the first batch of beefsteak tomatoes grown at the 60-acre facility will be on shelves of Kroger, Publix, Food City and Meijer stores around the country.

Founder and CEO Jonathan Webb, a Kentucky native, said Appalachia is ideal because of its heavy rainfall. AppHarvest farms use 100% recycled rain water and zero chemical pesticides.

The company's goal is to make Kentucky a leader in growing and supplying fresh, affordable produce. It hopes to eventually ship 45 million pounds of tomatoes each year. 

"We know how flavorless and devoid of nutrients tomatoes are when they are picked a month ago," said Stewart during a video news conference Tuesday. "I think that we all need and want better food for us, for our families, for our friends."

Stewart also wants organic produce to be more affordable and accessible. She said she was shocked when she went to the grocery last Saturday and had to pay $98 for a small cart full of organic vegetables.

AppHarvest says its Morehead greenhouse, which houses 720,000 tomato plants over the equivalent of 45 football fields, is one of the largest single-story buildings in the world. Its tomato plants will be harvested continually and can grow to 45 feet high, helping achieve 30 times the yield of a traditional farm.

Webb also said AppHarvest is keen to invest in an economically depressed region which has long depended on coal. Webb said the Morehead farm’s 350 employees all make at least $15 per hour and have health benefits. The company received more than 10,000 applications for those spots, he said.

In addition to Stewart, “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance is a member of AppHarvest’s board. Vance’s venture capital fund, Narya, is an investor in AppHarvest, which plans a public stock listing this year.

AppHarvest is currently building a 60-acre facility in Richmond, Kentucky, and a 15-acre facility to grow leafy greens in Berea, Kentucky. The company plans to build a total of 12 indoor farms across Appalachia by 2025.

The company has a long way to go before it makes a dent in the tomato market. In 2015, for example, the U.S. produced 2.7 billion pounds of fresh tomatoes, mostly in Florida and California. But that production only fed around 40% of demand. The rest was made up by imports from Mexico and Canada, according to a report by the University of Florida. Fresh tomato production in the U.S. has been declining over the last two decades, the report said, partly because of drought.

Webb believes AppHarvest can help reverse that trend and expand it, eventually, to many varieties of fruit and vegetables.

"That’s where agriculture, as a whole, is moving," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.