It was heralded as “the future of food.” “Now you’ll see farms you operate with an iPhone or iPad,” Jonathan Webb said. During this media tour in 2021, AppHarvest Founder and former CEO Jonathan Webb said he hoped to build 12 facilities, like this 60-acre greenhouse in Morehead, by 2025.
But two years and four indoor farms later, the agri-tech business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A group called Equilibrium bought the greenhouses, and each of the farms in Morehead, Somerset, Richmond, and Berea are now operating under new owners.
“They have contracted with Mastonardi, a group that does farms. They’ve contracted with them to run the farm operations. From the county standpoint, we really haven’t seen anything,” said Rowan County Judge Executive Harry Clark.
Clark said the transition between owners has actually been as seamless as they could have hoped for. “I talked to the farm manager just a few days ago. They replanted everything. All of the greenhouses are replanted. Ours is replanted here,” Clark said.
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