GATC West Virginia, a health tech hub, was awarded $5 million to hire new staff. The company uses artificial intelligence to test the efficacy of new medications.
As overdose rates continue to rise nationally, a health company with West Virginia ties will soon receive $5 million in state funds to further research on substance use disorders.
GATC West Virginia — an in-state hub of the health technology company GATC Health — will use the new investment to develop medical treatments through artificial intelligence.
The company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict how effective and safe new medicines will be, and to preemptively identify side effects.
New treatments must still be tested using clinical trials. But GATC claims using simulations can increase the likelihood of a medication’s success and expedite the development process.
Provided by the West Virginia Economic Development Authority and West Virginia Jobs Investment Trust, the new funding will allow GATC to hire tens of new employees at their location in Morgantown.
In a Friday press release, Gov. Jim Justice said the collaboration would put West Virginia at the forefront of developing health technology.
“West Virginia is leading the way in revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry and making a huge difference in medicine discovery,” Justice said. “This initiative places West Virginia on the map as a leader of innovation as we bring cutting-edge technology right to our backyard to find effective medicines.”
The start-up was built on the idea of using cutting-edge technology and local workers to produce vegetables on an industrial scale. And this was all set to happen in eastern Kentucky, where the company’s founder said this new version of agriculture could help replace the fading coal industry. AppHarvest got a lot of attention — from national media, politicians and investors. But then, last year, the company filed for bankruptcy.
This conversation originally aired in the Feb. 11, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
When AppHarvest built its first greenhouse in 2020, it was touted as no less than the future of farming — and maybe Appalachia itself.
The start-up was built on the idea of using cutting-edge technology and local workers to produce vegetables on an industrial scale. And this was all set to happen in eastern Kentucky, where the company’s founder said this new version of agriculture could help replace the fading coal industry.
AppHarvest got a lot of attention — from national media, politicians and investors. But then, last year, the company filed for bankruptcy. Austyn Gaffney recently reported on AppHarvest’s downfall in a story for Grist and Louisville Public Media.
Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams spoke with Gaffney to learn more.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Adams: AppHarvest has received a lot of media attention from the time it was founded. But for folks who haven’t heard of AppHarvest, can you tell us about the company?
Gaffney: AppHarvest was founded by a Kentuckian named Jonathan Webb in January of 2018, basically saying that, in order to revitalize the economy of central Appalachia, we needed to bring in more blue collar jobs. His vision for these blue collar jobs was a spattering of 12 giant greenhouses, which grew produce like tomatoes and berries and lettuce indoors. He built the first of those greenhouses in Morehead, Kentucky, in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then he added four more greenhouses over the next couple of years.
Jonathan Webb, founder and former CEO of AppHarvest.
Credit: Jon Cherry/Grist
Adams: AppHarvest checked off so many boxes that people talk about it when they talk about economic development and Appalachia. They touted decent paying blue collar jobs with benefits for locals, building out the local food system, diversifying the economy in a coal producing region — even leaning in on private investment, as opposed to just grants and public funding. Where did AppHarvest go wrong?
Gaffney: Based on my reporting, the biggest problem at AppHarvest seems to have was that it grew too big too fast. It went through 12 rounds of funding, raised over $800 million in seed and venture capital funding, along with loans from banks and national organizations like the USDA. That was before they built their first greenhouse. They also started planning on going public.
You mentioned private investment. They partnered with basically what is a blank-check company for the purpose of joining the stock market. So on top of lenders, they also now have stockholders to contend with, to pay back all this money on sort of a low value product, which was tomatoes, lettuce and berries. By the summer of 2021, before they’re open even a year, AppHarvest leadership admitted on an investor call that the company was staring down a $32 million net loss. That same day, stocks dropped 29 percent and in the following months, the company was facing five different lawsuits alleging securities fraud.
Basically, stockholders were saying that leadership had lied about the productivity in the greenhouses and the success of the company. So through these suits at AppHarvest, leadership was repeatedly cited as blaming employee training, turnover and “a poor work ethic” as the root causes of the company’s failures to achieve profitability. Basically, rather than working out the kinks in its first year of operation, AppHarvest built five greenhouses while selling a low value product and blamed its failures in some ways on the laborers that kept the company going.
Adams: AppHarvest isn’t the only indoor agriculture project in the U.S., or even here in Appalachia. Multiple companies have closed or filed for bankruptcy in the last few years. Why is this particular industry so challenging?
Gaffney: Traditional farming relies on labor but also sun, rain and soil. In controlled environment agriculture (CEA), this type of industry relies on a reproduction of at least one of those, which is largely energy. In the example of AppHarvest, the greenhouses rely on a hydroponic system, the reproduction of heat and light, and pulling in water from retention ponds.
In Kentucky, we rely on coal for nearly 70 percent of our electricity. So the production of this produce is also tied to increased greenhouse gas emissions. The cost of those lights and the robotics that power parts of these facilities, especially when tied to commodified fossil fuels, can make this industry prohibitively expensive.
Over the last decade, there’s been an influx of venture capital funding into this industry, and the CEA market is predicted to be worth $3 billion by next year. So while the high costs of these facilities have accumulated quickly, they’ve also led to a domino of bankruptcies and closures, especially over the last couple of years.
Adams: There’s a lot in the story about how AppHarvest tried to cut labor costs. What was that experience like for workers?
Gaffney: The biggest complaints I learned from employees were how the big promises that AppHarvest made in its initial couple years failed to match their actual working environment.
When people were hired, especially at the inaugural Morehead greenhouse, they were deeply excited to join this new company which had this big mission, which they felt like was contributing to a sustainable future. Some of the employees told me that they would skip down the aisles during their first couple of weeks or months of work because they were so excited to be there.
But in October 2020, workers said they were told they needed to work overtime, including weekends, and one employee said when she complained, her supervisor told her she needed to “learn to sacrifice.” By the spring and the summer, extreme heat descended into the greenhouse. Former workers reported heat indexes that could reach into the 140s and the 150s, and often hovered in the territory of what the National Weather Service calls “extreme danger,” which is anything above 126 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s what these employees called “a grueling hell on earth.” They complained of heat exhaustion, rashes, dehydration and also dangerous working conditions where glass panels could fall from the greenhouse ceiling or tomato wires could snap.
This kind of mismanagement or dissatisfaction also bled into the corporate office that was based in Lexington. Former workers told me the leadership team was disorganized, and the goals of their positions were not clearly stated. One corporate worker told me they felt like they’d been sold a beautiful pipe dream, something that felt sustainable and new, and that could make it in Kentucky. But they said it turned out just to be a nightmare.
AppHarvest was touted as no less than the future of farming, but they filed for bankruptcy last year.
Credit: Jon Cherry/Grist
Adams: The story goes over a lot of ways that AppHarvest got things wrong. Is there a different version of AppHarvest, and that business model, that could potentially work in Appalachia?
Gaffney: It’s sort of speculative, so obviously, I can’t say for certain. But I think like all climate solutions, there’s a space for a renewable grid-powered version of AppHarvest. That could be one piece in a puzzle of solutions for a future food economy. That also includes small scale family farm markets that are sustainable and take care of our soil. But in order to feed our growing world, solutions like controlled environment agriculture — where we produce a high yield in a smaller facility without continuing to infringe on our forests and biodiversity — I think there is a space for that.
But AppHarvest grew so quickly that they weren’t able to trial and error a new type of economy with a totally new workforce. Maybe if AppHarvest had, had one greenhouse over three years, or five years or 10 years, and developed that workforce pipeline over time, they could have been successful. Instead, they built five greenhouses in less than three years. At that scale, it’s not that the science of CEA is wrong, but basically, it’s expensive. Plants are finicky, especially in indoor agriculture. If a disease or a pathogen takes hold, it can spread like wildfire.
I think they needed more room to make mistakes in their first few years, and maybe have less money to pay back in their first few years than they were able to do.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, we wrap up another week of the West Virginia Legislative session, and the pace is starting to pick up in both chambers. We also have a story from our student reporters and a history lookback as well.
Updated on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024 at 11:20 a.m.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, we wrap up another week of the West Virginia Legislative session, and the pace is starting to pick up in both chambers. We also have a story from our student reporters and a history lookback as well.
In the House, 10 bills passed through third reading, all with either unanimous or near unanimous votes. Some follow a trend this session of creating more legislative oversight. Others increase consumer protection on gift card fraud and phone spam. Randy Yohe has more.
In the Senate, the chamber approved five bills on things like new energy technology and left lane driving. Seventeen bills advanced. Briana Heaney has more.
Debate broke out on the House floor after amendments were proposed to the Women’s Bill of Rights. Emily Rice has more.
Our high school reporters this week bring us a look at three bills they’ve been following.
Also, the House earlier this week introduced House Bill 5006. The bill is related to the administration of the A. James Manchin Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan. Who was he? We asked Bob Brunner to give us a little more background.
Finally, we regularly invite reporters from outside news organizations into our studio to discuss what they are seeing during the legislative session. Our own Briana Heaney and Emily Rice spoke with Lori Kersey, a reporter from the independent news organization West Virginia Watch.
Having trouble viewing the video below? Click here to watch it on YouTube.
The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.
Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
The West Virginia Department of Education is helping schools come to terms with the new reality of artificial intelligence (AI).
The West Virginia Department of Education is helping schools come to terms with the new reality of artificial intelligence (AI).
West Virginia is the third state in the country to develop AI guidance for PK-12 education use. That’s according to Erika Klose, coordinator of academic support for the state Department of Education, who told the state Board of Education Wednesday that AI is already here in a variety of everyday technologies.
“We may not really realize it, but it’s here,” Klose said. “So if you ask Siri to set a reminder for you, Siri is using something called natural language processing to understand what you said, and then complete the task. When our phone scans our face in place of a password, your phone is using complex image processing, which is a form of AI to make certain that your face belongs to the person who should be accessing that phone.”
Klose gave a similar presentation to members of the Joint Standing Committee on Education Sunday.
She emphasized that AI will never replace educators, who instead will be taught how best to use the technology in their classroom. Nor will it solve all of the problems facing the education system. These concepts help frame the new guidance to support learning, which include clarifying the ethical uses of AI, safeguarding student well being and data privacy and facilitating open and transparent dialogue about AI with all involved parties.
She said if the department’s new guidelines are followed, AI has the potential to greatly help both students and educators create productive learning environments.
“We believe that we could have individualized learning experiences that cater to each student’s needs, improve accessibility for students with diverse learning needs and exceptionalities … and allow our students to acquire the necessary skills for the 21st century, such as the knowledge of computer science and data literacy,” Klose said.
Klose concluded by stating that the next steps in AI guidance will include significant public input.
“Within the next month, we will be launching a public stakeholder survey to look at our larger community’s perceptions around AI and how they’re using it, questions that they have,” she said. “We want the responses from our community, our parents, our students, our schools, our districts, our administrators, our teachers. We want their voice in that survey.”
On this West Virginia Morning, a Shepherd University professor is overseeing research to make aircraft communication more secure. Caroline MacGregor sat down with Assistant Professor of Business Administration George Ray to talk about his cutting-edge research.
On this West Virginia Morning, a Shepherd University professor is overseeing research to make aircraft communication more secure. His research was presented at the 63rd annual conference of the International Association for Computer Information Systems. It has also been published in several publications and is attracting the attention of the country’s defense contractors.
Assistant News Director Caroline MacGregor sat down with Assistant Professor of Business Administration George Ray to talk about his cutting-edge research.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Caroline MacGregor produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
Science fiction and technology writer Corey Doctorow (Dr. O) presented this year’s McCreight Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Charleston. An award-winning author, he’s written novels and young adult fiction, as well as essays and nonfiction books about technology. Bill Lynch spoke with Doctorow in advance of his visit to Charleston.
This story originally aired in the Oct. 22, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Science fiction and technology writer Corey Doctorow (Dr. O) presented this year’s McCreight Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Charleston.
An award-winning author, he’s written novels and young adult fiction, as well as essays and nonfiction books about technology.
Bill Lynch spoke with Doctorow in advance of his visit to Charleston.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Cory Doctorow
Courtesy Jonathan Worth
Lynch: I guess the first question is, how do you see yourself? You see yourself strictly as, as a fiction writer? Or are you a lot more than that?
Doctorow: You know, I think that on the one hand, when I write fiction, it’s because, without wanting to be too grand, I’m trying to be an artist, right? I’m trying to make art. That’s what creative writing is. It’s an art form.
And so the job of an artist is to make good art, right? It’s to make you feel things that you wouldn’t feel otherwise, to kind of go to new places, and so on.
Now, part of the method for doing that is to also infuse it with the work that I do as an activist, in part because the use of real-world, important issues in fiction makes the fiction seem more important. And it makes the fiction, I think, actually more important, you know?
It’s easy to forget just how weird fiction is, right? That we somehow are tricked into feeling empathy for imaginary people doing things that never happened, and caring about what happened there.
It literally could not be less consequential, right? Like, there are no consequences to the things imaginary people do. It just comes with the territory there.
So, one of the things that I think makes the art more urgent and more artistically satisfying is the infusion of the art with real world stuff. At the same time, so much of the stuff that I work on is so abstract and so difficult to wrap your head around, that one of the things that fiction can do is make it more immediate.
As an activist, you know, I’m always looking for ways to make things that are important, but are a long way off, or are too complicated to readily grasp into things that feel very immediate and pressing.
Certainly, that’s something that happens a lot in my fiction.
Lynch: What’s one thing you’d like just the average person to understand about technology?
Doctorow: That’s a good question. I guess it’s that the collapse of the internet that we have today, from the wild and woolly internet, where disintermediation seemed everywhere, people, we’re able to have lots of technological self-determination, and to the descent into the internet we have today, which Tom Eastman calls five giant websites filled with screenshots of text from the other four, was not driven by any kind of technological inevitability, right?
It wasn’t like it had to be this way.
Specific choices, policy choices, made by specific named individuals whose home addresses are not hard to find, and who live conveniently close to a supply of pitchforks and torches, that those specific policy choices were made, and they gave us the internet we have now.
And it needn’t be this way forever, that we can have a better internet, that it’s a matter, not of the great forces of history, but of human agency,
Lynch: Places like Appalachia, particularly West Virginia, have seen a decline in population, as people, mostly young people, have left. Could technology, technological advances, a better internet – could that mitigate that?
Doctorow: Well, you know, Appalachia, like many other places, isn’t the Silicon Valley. It’s a place that both needs technology and isn’t getting the technology it needs.
The lived experience of bros in a boardroom in Silicon Valley is so far off from the experience of people in Appalachia, or indeed in many other places in the world, including in Silicon Valley, if you’re not a rich tech, bro, it’s very important that we have the right and capability to modify the technology that we’re expected to use.
I’m not saying “learn to code” is the thing that we should tell miners that have been put out of work by the energy transition or anything. But I am saying that if you don’t know how to adapt the technology that is acting on you. And if you don’t have the right to adapt the technology that is acting on you, that it will only act on you and that will you’ll never be able to act on it, that you’ll never be able to adapt it to your needs and to make it do what you need in order to live a prosperous and better life.
So, it’s very important that technological self-determination be a part of the story when we talk about how we’re going to use technology everywhere, but especially in places that are so far, both in terms of their lived experience and the geographical distance, from Silicon Valley as Appalachia.
