 This Company Was an American Success Story. Until MAHA Influencers Sank It. All it took was two Facebook posts to turn an online mob against Apeel Sciences and its booming business of keeping food fresh longer.
James Rogers, the former CEO of Apeel Sciences, is seen at its headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. (Yuri Hasegawa/Redux)
The eureka moment for James Rogers arrived while driving past some California farmland in 2011. He was a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on world hunger, and the drive got him thinking about a huge problem with fresh produce. Growing it wasn’t the problem. Keeping it fresh was. This article is featured in Tech and Business. Sign up here to get an update every time a new piece is published. Working out of his garage, Rogers devised a fix. He used materials found in the skins, peels, and seeds of fruits and vegetables—especially grapes—to create a protective covering that slowed down the water loss and oxidation that cause fresh produce to spoil after being harvested. The early results won him a $100,000 grant in 2012 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Rogers soon hired two classmates as employees and launched a company called Apeel Sciences...
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