Premium 65: Captain Planet, Venture Capitalist

4% BlackRoc, btw

meow_da_cat

I could go on and on, but bottom line-that place is fucking terrible. And they are building more in Richmond, Berea, Morehead…they have to be stopped.

meow_da_cat

Recent subscriber, been going through past episodes. I’ve worked in agriculture for a long time, from small-scale local organic market vegetable production to indoor leafy greens (Plenty, Bay-Area startup but working in their Wyoming R&D) to getting laid-off there and falling into a mid-level management job at AppHarvest. I’ve since left that place and am back into a local CSA farm in GA before my fiancée and I start our leftist ag cooperative in Zurich, CH. Anyway, AppHarvest like all of these new ag-tech startups, is terrible for a variety of reasons. First off, this tech is hardly new, but it’s billed as such. The Dutch have been doing this for years, and it was mainly the Dutch companies and some local subcontractors who built this thing. These buildings have at most a 25 year lifespan, which is pretty shitty considering the astronomical cost of materials and all of the energy used in their manufacture. So it’s hype. Next, these aren’t a long-term solution to food security/production. It’s a neat engineering problem that some scientists can dork out on, but at the end of the day, the entire reason they are in EKY is because natural gas and coal power are way cheaper than other areas, and when you need to heat and light (something like 30,000 LED & HPS lights), you need lots of energy-like $250,000 power bill in winter. The greenhouse market in the SW is getting tight, so they are moving Capital to an area ripe for exploitation. Also, the SW has waaaay more sunny days, so all those cloudy KY days yeah running the lights. The millions that they’ve gotten are not used efficiently-the Lexington office has lavish snacks, bar, bloated salaries, branding teams that sit in their asses posting all day making close to six figures. If you want real investment in the future of ag, quit subsidizing bioengineering companies like Monsanto and Ag-Tech companies like Appharvest and move the money into small, local producers (ultimately, land reform/nationalization would be ideal). Another reason is, like has been said in other episodes, the insanely cheap reserve army of labor of the area that don’t demand union representation. I was told in Day 1 it was for sure non-Union and never would be. The culture there was so shitty. When anyone big came through (Martha Stewart, McConnell’s demon wife, JD Vance, investors) they would play Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers on repeat basically tell the employees to stay out of sight. Meanwhile, Webb would say some speech and get all teary-eyed about how they are ‘revitalizing the economic engine of Eastern Kentucky’ whilst rocking ultra-skinny Levi’s and a denim pearl snap. He has a messiah complex, for sure. The Steve Jobs of denim. Pure psychopathy.

meow_da_cat

yeah steven king already crossed over a lot of his books and tied the universe together - pretty sure the Stand & The Dark Tower share universes at the very least.

Josh Aych

um actually they're building on the stephn king literature universe

bon

Tear down Capitalism, build Communism. Yes we can!

Ugh. I'm a produce farmer. It's a cool thing to do on a small sustainable local scale. Shit like 60+acre greenhouses that grow hydroponics are bullshit. You're right. They are inferior produce to that which is grown in the soil. Plus, they get to claim "organic" thanks to some corporate engineered usda BS.

If Tom has to call in please find a recording solution which captures the fullness of his soothing baritone. I like feeling like someone is talking their way into my pants.

Brendan Comfort

Omggggg this song at the end took me out

Get this..... shIT part 2.

Springfield Fatts