Growth DOES Start With Us!

Kentucky Agriculture reflects all the unique features of the Commonwealth’s varied landscape: from the forests of eastern Kentucky, to the Bluegrass region’s horse farms, to the soybean and cornfields of the western parts of our state. From north to south, Kentucky farmers raise pigs, cattle, sheep, goats — even bees! — and through the varied kinds of horticulture they produce a bounty of vegetables and fruits, flowers and shrubs, that are bought by consumers far and near.

Kentucky Agriculture also is the fabric of our rural communities — it is the economic backbone of towns throughout the Commonwealth. Jobs in agribusiness — at companies that provide agricultural supplies and processing, financing, equipment or that build the infrastructure to support farming — form an economic and indeed a social world of mutually dependent activities. Together with jobs in farming, these make up the rural communities of Kentucky as we know them today.

Our goal for the Ag Summit is to paint the broad landscape of issues the ag community as a whole is facing nationally and internationally. We are bringing together expert speakers from around the country who will document the paradigm shift that is taking place in agriculture around the world. And we will use this day of learning and thinking to launch a strategic planning process that will give Kentucky Agriculture and its rural communities a roadmap for the next five years. As one of our speakers put it:

For agriculture and rural America, the goals are changing, the rules are changing, the business strategies are changing and society is changing. This means the Kentucky strategic planning program is very important for the longterm future.”
— Varel Bailey

Additionally, we have scheduled a very important Pre‑Summit Symposium on Bioenergy — a field that holds important opportunities for all parts of our state and sectors of agriculture — from forestry to row crops to many new forms of biomass being developed and for which commercial markets are emerging.

I invite you to join me, the Kentucky Agricultural Council and our lead sponsor, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund, for these two important days.

Tod Griffin
2011 Kentucky Ag Council Chairman