Agribusiness Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

The Fall Of AppHarvest, Inside Appalachia

When the farming start-up, AppHarvest, launched in Kentucky, it promised good jobs in coal country — but some workers called it a grueling hell on earth. We also explore an island of Japanese culture in West Virginia called Yama.

When the farming start-up, AppHarvest, launched in Kentucky, it promised good jobs in coal country — but some workers called it a grueling hell on earth.

We also explore an island of Japanese culture in West Virginia called Yama.

And fish fries have been a staple in Charleston, West Virginia’s Black community for years. We visit one and learn a little about what’s made them so popular.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

The Rise And Fall Of AppHarvest
Japanese Homestyle Haven In Morgantown
Fish Fries, An African-American Tradition In Charleston, WV
Remembering the WV Water Crisis 10 Years Later

The Rise And Fall Of AppHarvest

When AppHarvest built its first greenhouse in 2020, it was touted as no less than the future of farming — and even Appalachia itself. The start-up would use cutting-edge technology and local workers to produce vegetables on an industrial scale. But then, last year, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Austyn Gaffney recently reported on the downfall of AppHarvest, in a story for Grist. Mason Adams talks with Gaffney to learn more.

Japanese Homestyle Haven In Morgantown

Staff member Ryoko Kijimoto serves up rich rice bowls and ramen in Yama’s diner atmosphere.

*Credit: Min Kim*

High Street in Morgantown, West Virginia is a bustling strip. Tucked away off the main drag is a place called Yama, a cozy diner that’s been serving up homestyle Japanese food since the 1990s. Japanese students and staff share their language, culture and food. It’s also a place of comfort and connection for everyone.

Folkways Reporter Lauren Griffin has the story.

Fish Fries, An African-American Tradition In Charleston, W.Va.

Andre Nazario

*Credit: Leeshia Lee/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Signs for fish fries are pretty common in Charleston, West Virginia, especially in the city’s Black community, where they’ve become a tradition.

Folkways Fellow, Leeshia Lee, grew up in Charleston and says friends and neighbors frequently hosted fish fries, often as a way to raise money for community needs. Lee has the story.

Remembering The W.Va. Water Crisis 10 Years Later

Kallie Cart reporting on the January 2014 West Virginia water crisis.

*Credit: Kallie Cart/WCHS-TV*

Ten years ago, a chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia’s Elk River contaminated the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people. The disaster became a national story, about corporate distrust and community action.

WVPB’s Randy Yohe spoke with Kallie Cart, a former broadcast reporter who covered the crisis and went viral after one particular exchange.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Chris Knight, Tim Bing, Amythyst Kiah, Jeff Ellis and Bob Thompson.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Food & Farm Coalition Identifying Food Policy Priorities for 2016 Session

Members of the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition hosted their second annual food policy forum in Summersville Tuesday. The grassroots group is working to expand access to locally grown foods in the state while also improving the business climate for small farmers. While the discussions were preliminary, the group is beginning to identify its Legislative agenda for the 2016 session.

“We never know from day one to the sixtieth day what it’s going to be,” Senator Ron Miller warned the group as they began identifying their issues. He urged them to be flexible as they work with lawmakers through the legislative process.

A Democrat from GreenbrierCounty, the senator served for years as the chair of the Senate’s Agriculture Committee, but now that the chamber is under Republican control, Miller no holds the position. Still, he said agricultural policies aren’t as politically divisive as many of the other issues in the statehouse.

“Where it becomes political is if we emphasize agricultural issues,” he said. “A lot of time people in leadership don’t believe it’s important in West Virginia and it’s extremely important.”

Important, Miller said, because it can provide the economic diversification some regions of the state are desperate for.

“As a lot of our more historic industries have started declining, we can see food and farm businesses start as a small niche of economic development, West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition Program Director Megan Smith said.

So, Smith and the coalition are working on a grassroots level to aid those niche industries and zero in on policy changes that will help them thrive in West Virginia communities. The coalition’s gathering in Summerville was the first step in their annual process of choosing policy initiatives to back and turning them into actual pieces of legislation they can present at the statehouse.

Tuesday’s day long session included a workshop led by Ona Balkus with the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. The clinic works with state-level groups across the country to increase access to healthy foods, prevent diet-related diseases and create new market opportunities for small farmers. They both research and write policy while promoting effective ways to share those messages with lawmakers, like community organizing.

“Because especially I think on the state and local level, if you have an organized coalition pushing for something, you can get a lot done,” Balkus said after the workshop. “Legislators are listening. They’re not deaf to those kinds of efforts.”

The Food and Farm Coalition has seen recent success, getting lawmakers’ approval during the 2015 session for a bill that set up a better business structure for agricultural and recycling co-ops.

Still, Miller said the politics—and the money—will play a part in the agricultural issues the coalition tries to push during the 2016 session. For the sake of the coalfields, he said, he hopes agriculture doesn’t get overshadowed.

“We sometimes look for the power or the money in the state. Right now it’s gas, it was coal. Those still are two powerful areas,” Miller said, but agriculture is part of our state seal. It’s part of our history, but it’s also a part of our future and that’s what you have to do, you have to continue to emphasize the part that it can play in revitalizing southern West Virginia.”

The coalition plans to identify its top legislative priorities by the end of the summer, turn them into legislation and start shopping those bills to lawmakers for their support by interim meetings in September.

So far, possible initiatives include funding for mobile markets to increase access to fresh foods and legislation that would allow the sale of cottage foods, or foods like jams and baked goods produced in people’s homes.

Morgantown Talks Urban Agriculture Policy

A group called the Morgantown Municipal Green Team will host a Community Dialogue on Urban Agriculture next week.

Morgantown is taking a note from Charleston which recently revamped their urban ag policies.

The goal of the urban agriculture dialogue is to gather stakeholders and citizens interested in local production of agricultural products, and to review city regulations of agricultural activities within the City of Morgantown. It was initiated largely by Morgantown City Council members who visited the Charleston area and learned about their city’s agriculture initiatives.

Market Manager of the Morgantown and Westover Farmers Markets, Lisa Lagana, says urban farmers already exist in Morgantown, and there’s plenty of data to suggest growing interest. She hopes the discussion ultimately shapes policy that will serve the specific needs of her community. Possible items to discuss might include raising chickens or livestock, beekeeping, and composting.

The benefits of urban agriculture include everything from encouraging healthier lifestyles, to a more robust local economy, and reductions in vandalism and crime.

The Urban Ag round table will take place 6:00–7:30pm at the downtown public library (373 Spruce Street).

For more information, contact Pamela Cubberly at 703-218-5417 or Lisa Lagana, Market Manager of the Farmers Market, at 304-993-2410.

How Vacant Lots in Charleston Are Transforming Into a School for Farmer-Entrepreneurs

On a sultry summer evening, three women are killing harlequin beetles in an effort to save the greens at the SAGE micro-farm on Rebecca Street that they landscaped themselves.

Last year, Kathy Moore, Jenny Totten and Meg Reishman completed 18 agriculture and business classes through SAGE, which stands for Sustainable Agricultural Entrepreneurs. Kathy says she loves getting to take home an unlimited supply of fresh vegetables each week.

“Oh my goodness, the green zebra tomatoes were absolutely my favorite. They are just absolutely luscious!” says Kathy, who works a day job, like most of the other growers, outside the SAGE micro-farm. She and the other SAGE growers also earn a few hundred dollars apiece at the end of the year based on the group’s produce sales.

The food is grown on Charleston’s West Side, in a high-crime area with many vacant lots. Over the past two years, the SAGE program has transformed two of these lots into working micro-farms.

New this year is the Rebecca St. garden, with its unusual swirling starburst shape. At the center of the beds of squash, kale and tomatoes is a bright circle of sunflowers, zinnias, basil and cilantro. Kathy is surprised that the garden’s design has been so successful.

“I had no idea that it would be so inviting. So, yeah. It’s a really nice design, and people are excited just to come and look at it.”

Rainbow chard and collard greens have been some of SAGE’s best sellers this year

SAGE sells edible flowers to a local restaurant in Charleston called Mission Savvy. The flower and herbs are grown in a circle at the center of the Rebecca Street garden.

The SAGE program teaches growers like Meg Reischman how to make a business plan and how to choose the most profitable types of produce.

“I was having a difficult time sitting down and figuring out what my break even price was, and whether it was worth growing it or not, making a plan,” Meg says.

Many of the students struggle with these questions, says SAGE instructor Dr. Dee Sing-Knights, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics with West Virginia University’s extension services. She teaches the SAGE growers how to manage small businesses and how to market their produce. She tells the growers to make sure the public knows that SAGE’s organic produce might cost a little more than supermarket vegetables, which often come from larger, more mechanized farms.

“I always tell them, you have to tell your customers that listen, the reason this costs more is I squashed my bugs by hand!” says Dr. Singh-Knights. The SAGE growers are also learning to educate more potential customers about the value of spending money inside the community, versus sending the money out of state by buying food at a chain store.

Even if the 18 SAGE graduates never become full time farmers, this morning for breakfast they are probably all making food using at least one ingredient they grew themselves.

This year, the group has seen an increase in the sales of produce and flowers at their local Saturday markets, as more customers are enjoying the fruits of their labor, too.

Reclaiming the Abandoned: Ohio Valley Grows Local Food Economy

**Music by Sugar Short Wave.

Like many towns across much of the state, Wheeling is home to a lot of abandoned, depressed, impoverished areas susceptible to crime and drug epidemics. The region has depended largely on the coal and steel industries, which are declining. The population is decreasing along with the economy and the vitality of the communities.

A small group is tackling several major projects with the hope of changing all of that. The projects all center around infusing the town with locally grown foods, and educational opportunities to teach residents how these foods are grown. There are eight initiatives already in motion and the fledgling non-profit, Grow Ohio Valley, has raised more than $200,000 so far to support their efforts. They hope that instead of being known as a dying town, Wheeling can become a regional food production hub.

Grow Ohio Valley

A lot of the impetus for the growth in the local food economy has come from Danny Swan, co-founder of Grow Ohio Valley (GrowOV). He came to Wheeling through Jesuit University. He hails from Morgantown. He’s really passionate about growing food, educating youth, and about his community. He says GrowOV is fundamentally about growing and distributing quality foods into neighborhoods, and teaching people, especially kids, where and how that food is made.

Executive director of GrowOV is Kenneth Peralta. A filmmaker with an MBA from Harvard Business School, Peralta blew in from New York City several years ago with a mission to explore food and sustainability. Lucky Wheeling. Since he got here, he’s co-authored a Benedum-funded study that outlined the region’s potential to develop a local food economy.

Now armed with blueprints of how to build healthy, sustainable, economically-strong communities, GrowOV is putting eight ideas in motion.

Farm 18

It’s called “Farm 18” because it’s on 18^th street in Wheeling. Farm 18 has been growing for about 5 years now and is currently the nonprofit’s primary production and training ground. The farm, located under a highway overpass, produces eggs, fruits, and veggies. Last year, the acre plot produced an estimated 10,000 pounds of organic produce, sold and distributed throughout the community. This year, Swan said, with a lot of volunteer effort and resources, they hope to produce 20,000. And all of these organic vegetables are being grown on top of filled-in foundations of a former neighborhood.

Youth Outreach and Summer Camps

Swan and Peralta agree, continuing to develop aand deploy the educational elements of GrowOV is a top priority. This summer plans are in motion to launch a full docket of educational programs for ages 5-18. These programs will focus on gardening, healthy living, and sustainability.
“In the end that’s where the changes come from, is changing [kids’] mindsets,” Peralta said.

Site location of planned Vineyard Hills Orchard.

Vineyard Hills Orchard – a five-acre urban apple orchard

The nonprofit applied for and was awarded a grant through the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. The urban orchard proposal was awarded the highest possible award of $25,000 to get the project started. Fencing and 1,000 dwarf apple trees, as well as blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries will be constructed and planted this spring across what are currently five vacant and unusable acres in North Wheeling hills. GrowOV is working with the Wheeling Housing Authority who owns the property.

Five Apple Factoids: 1. It’s estimated that from 2000 to 2020 the consumption of apples, per capita, will increase by nearly 8 percent. (USDA) 2. Americans eat nearly 16 pounds of apples each year (USDA Census) 3. Wheeling residents consume 223 tons per year, or about 9,300 bushels (48 lbs/bushel) 4. Ohio County School District paid $24/bushel of apples last year (about $30,000/year) 5. On 4 acres, GrowOV projects to grow between 1,200 – 3,200 bushels per year (trees will yield at full capacity in 2018).

Linclon Meadow Organic Farm & Training Center

GrowOV has plans to reclaim an abandoned neighborhood that was torn down in the 1970s and has now grown into a forest in the Middle of Wheeling. They want to take the existing elements, the overgrown roads and these pretty-much-perfect public stairways with hand rails that traverse the entire hill, and turn them into Wheeling Botanical Garden. The plan is to develop over the next several years vegetable, medicinal, and flower gardens, fruit and nut trees, nature trails complete with historical and informative signage, as well as create a teaching garden in the meadow that overlooks the Ohio Valley.

Brandon W. Holmes in front of the building on top of Wheeling Hills that will become Friendly City Foods and the distribution hub for Black Swan Organics, GrowOV’s CSA.

Friendly City Foods – A Consignment Farmers Market/Health Food Store

GrowOV is taking a page from the Wild Ramp in Huntington, and creating this year-round combined consignment farmers market/retail local, healthy, natural food store slated to open in July. This building which was recently gifted to GrowOV from another Wheeling-based nonprofit, House of the Carpenter, will also serve as a distribution spot for GrowOV’s super-CSA entitled Black Swan Organics. (For those unfamiliar, CSA = Community Sustained Agriculture. Individuals purchase a subscription, and gain access to weekly distributions of produce from local farms or producers. Distribution is scheduled to begin June 18^th.)

Looking onto the future East Wheeling community greenhouse at the corner of 14th and Wood streets.

Four-Season Garden and Greenhouse

$22,000 in grants and donations from the Hess Foundation and others has already been awarded to support this project. On the corner of 14^th and Wood streets in East Wheeling, construction is already underway. The community greenhouse gets at the heart of what GrowOV is all about because it’s a year-round growing facility building with sustainable building techniques on historic remnants in the heart of a neighborhood in need of some love. The building will be used by residents as a place to grow foods to be sold in town.

Mobile Markets/Farm Stands

GrowOV started putting up farm stands in East Wheeling in 2013. This year they hope to launch a program that allows consumers to receive a 50 percent discount on purchases made using their Food Stamps. With $8,500 in grants from WV Food and Farm Coalition and the Community Impact Fund, Grow OV is sending out roving farm stands complete with cold storage options which sell to everyone from low-income households to high-rise buildings that house elderly residents.

Community Garden Micro Grants

There are about twenty small community gardens growing in Wheeling now, where five years ago, there were just many empty lots in neighborhoods known as a drug and crime hotspots. GrowOV wants to continue the trend by continuing to provide micro-grants and a “Community Garden Retention Program.” The Community Impact Fund has contributed $1,500 to support the effort. Mini-grants are awarded to community gardens that want to grow food, and special consideration is given to applicants who want to grow surplus food to sell at market.

1st National FFA Officer from W.Va. in 40 Years: Wesley Davis

“Future Farmers of America” was founded in 1928 with a mission to prepare future generations for the challenges of feeding a growing population. They teach that agriculture is more than planting and harvesting– it’s a science, it’s a business and it’s an art. There are about 5,000 members of the Future Farmers of America organization in the state of West Virginia, and almost 600,000 across the country. One of the organization’s leaders today is a young man from Point Pleasant.

Meet Wesley Davis. He goes by Wes. He’s 19 and this guy has a story.

Finding a Chicken

He grew up in Point Pleasant around lots of agriculture. He also spent a lot of time with his grandmother who was has an entrepreneur’s spirit. For years he worked at her flag store. One way or another, he inherited that spirit because by the seventh grade, his wheels started turning after a bunny mishap.

“I had thought that we had gotten two females, but it ended up we had a male and a female. Of course you know what rabbits do; they have a lot of babies. So they had a litter of babies—had about 10 rabbits and I decided, you know what? I’m gonna go into the rabbit business. I’m going to start selling these and make millions of dollars. By the time I sold all these rabbits, my parents were like, ‘Absolutely not, it’s just not happening.’”

But Wes wasn’t convinced his parents appreciated the possibilities, so he bided his time and looked for different avenues of approach. The county fair was, of course, the next day.

“So I start into the fair grounds and the first place I go—into the rabbits and poultry barn and start looking around. And of course I find one in the back corner and it’s got these beautiful little loppy ears and I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna buy this rabbit.’”

His mother had different ideas. He pleaded and argued and pointed out the cuteness, to which she replied:

“’It’s not happening. You’re not bringing anything home with a heartbeat except your brother. It’s just not happening,’” Wes says she said.

This is when Wes gets his brother involved… By the end of the week—all prices reduced! 5 dollar rabbit? Now 3 bucks. Wes approaches his little brother who, he knew, would do anything for him:

“I asked him, ‘Zack, can I have three dollars to get a drink?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, sure!’ So he gives me the three dollars and I go running toward the rabbit and poultry barn and I’m buying this rabbit. When I get the cage where it had ‘3$,’ it had a big X through it and it said, ‘SOLD.’ I was so disappointed. They already sold my rabbit. So head sulking, walking around, I went over to the poultry side of the barn and started looking around and I found this chicken for a dollar. I’m thinking, ‘I can get this chicken, I can get the drink, I didn’t technically lie to him!’”

So that’s what he did. He bought the chicken, he bought the drink, and he endured the wrath of his mother. That’s how Wes found his chicken. From there it’s history. Wes was in the Chicken and Egg business.

“By the time I was a senior in high school I had 350 [birds] and was selling [eggs] to 100 homes, 9 schools, and 10 restaurants. Also had a compost operation so all the litter from the poultry themselves—it actually was composted so that was a third of the revenue itself. So it wasn’t just selling the eggs, it was also selling the compost.”

Wes made $45k in revenue his senior year. On 2 acres.

Help

With some help from the USDA in the form of a five thousand dollar Young Farmer loan he bought his first brooding house to start a group of chicks and he soon had 50, then 350 birds. The USDA also offers grants through what’s called the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NRCS looks for ways to protect the environment through agricultural ventures.

“A lot of people see poultry waste as waste that you throw away. But I could get this grant where I had no investment in this facility, and then take that litter, process it into a product, and sell it!”

Wes explains that it all folded back into making himself marketable. He tapped into the local food market, and when people found out his was an environmentally responsible business, they were even more likely to support him.

Now he’s touring the country and even making trips abroad as a national officer of the FFA—the first from West Virginia in 39 years. Wes attributes a lot of his success to the training and encouragement he got through the FFA. He’s been visiting industry partners and officials, but the next 8 months will be dedicated to what he calls a marathon of classrooms and state FFA conventions, and meeting with state and local leaders.

Wes is also enrolled at West Virginia University studying agribusiness management and agriculture education. He says after his year as an FFA officer, he’ll start his quest for meaning. He has big ideas about ways to improve his home state, and he wants to see more successful businesses diversify West Virginia’s economy. He’s developing those ideas and obviously becoming an effective communicator. He talks about the 3 P’s of successful business: Product, People, and Process.

He says people in West Virginia are “just awesome.”

“I go around the country and I see a lot of places, but the people from WV are different. They want to help you, they’re encouraging. They’ll work as hard as they need to get the job done.”

“It’s the process in West Virginia that I think we’re lacking a lot of the time. We have great products, great ideas for products. I want to one day come back and help develop that process and see how is it that we can continue to have success, not only in entrepreneurship, but also in education and in our government and in the things that really help to advance our state.”

Wes doesn’t have a clear idea of what or where he’ll end up next. All he knows for sure is that he wants to do something helpful in the world.

“Because I really think we’re meant to help other people any way that we can. So if I’m in business or education or wherever, I want it to be something where I’m helping people,” he says.

Three cheers for Future Farmers, right?