RICHMOND, Ky. – Don’t ever let it be said that the people at AppHarvest let grass grow beneath their feet. Just a day before the company had its grand opening for its 2.76-million-square-foot high-tech greenhouse in Morehead, AppHarvest announced that it was breaking ground on a second facility in Richmond. And just eight days after that, officials announced a third facility in Berea.

“What we tried to say once we started construction, we did not want to stop construction for 10 years,” stated company founder and CEO Jonathan Webb, who said in an interview that demand is very high for fruits and vegetables grown in a controlled environment. “We are not going to be able to build and grow fast enough to satisfy the demand in the largest grocers and largest fast food chains and retailers in the U.S.”

Webb said that all of the company’s facilities will be centered around university towns in order to take advantage of the talent coming out of the schools. The second facility will be located near Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, while the third is to be built near Berea College in Berea. The Richmond greenhouse will mirror the original greenhouse in terms of size, at more than 60 acres, and will grow fruits and vegetables. The Berea facility will be smaller at 15 acres and will be used for leafy greens.

“We're taking a really really strong focus on education and trying to be deep and with these universities because we need the talent to run these facilities and unfortunately, the talent in the U.S. to the scale this industry just doesn't exist right now,” Webb said. “We're trying to share our data and information with universities and allow students to come and see what we're doing and have hands on experience.”

The Morehead farm is designed to reduce water usage by 90 percent compared to traditional open-field agriculture, due to a unique circular irrigation system that pairs with a 10-acre rainwater retention pond. Because the system uses only rainwater, the farm is designed to eliminate the scourge of agricultural runoff, which contributes to toxic algae blooms.

By locating in the central Kentucky and Appalachian regions, the company is within a day’s drive to nearly 70 percent of the U.S. population, reducing transportation costs by up to 80 percent compared to existing growers in Mexico and the Southwestern United States.

The company’s first farm benefits from being located in a water-rich region, which has seen record rainfall in recent years. That’s in contrast to America’s vegetable production concentration in Arizona and California, states that continue to confront water scarcity and climate disruptions.

The company said it represents a stark change from the existing American food system, which is increasingly reliant on imports. AppHarvest’s first harvest of tomatoes is expected to be available in early 2021 at leading grocers and restaurants. Tomatoes are AppHarvest’s first crop as more than 60 percent of America’s fresh tomatoes were imported in 2019, an increase of almost 50 percent over the past decade.

AppHarvest expects to create more than 300 jobs at its Morehead farm, which has long trailed national employment trends due to the decline of the coal industry. Over the past two years, AppHarvest attracted more than $150 million in investment into the region. The company announced on Sept. 29 a definitive agreement for a business combination with publicly traded special purpose acquisition firm Novus Capital Corporation.