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Strategic Roadmap for Kentucky Agriculture: 2025-2030

Foster more supply chain coordination to improve market access.

Supply chain development for Kentucky food and farm products is essential to developing a thriving and resilient agricultural economy. Tactics in this area are geared toward investing in infrastructure for and incentivizing the purchase of Kentucky-grown and raised food and farm products among large volume purchasers of food including, but not limited to, K-12 schools, colleges/universities, hospitals, and State Parks. —Dr. Ashton Potter, Strategy Lead

View Updated Working Group Document (.docx)

    Tactic 1: State-funded Institution Incentive

    Help change incentive structure at state level to purchase KY grown farm products for schools, state parks, and universities (both state run and state-funded).

    a. Identify common metric and point person for local tracking mechanisms, and regular enforcement through a specific person is needed. Standardize local definition.

    b. Seek administrative/legislative change to put an explicit process in place to contractually obligate, monitor, and track KY grown purchases e.g., each state institution incentivized to buy 5% from Kentucky farm products. State institutions need mechanism to track and comply before enforcement.

    c. Create infrastructure to pool buyers by size for incentives, e.g. state institutions, schools, small restaurants.

    d. Identify similar or neighboring states who have robust farm to school or state institution statewide requirements e.g. WV buy local model and Tennessee.

      When? November 2024-2025

      Where? Email communications, KDA, Kentucky General Assembly

      Project Leads

      Partners for Delivery

      Collaborators

      Food and Health Partners Working Group


      Tactic 2: Local Food in Schools

      Prioritize and seek food system investments to leverage school and farm relationships. Encourage a 5% goal. 

      a. Identify ways to leverage schools as largest produce buyer and help them communicate needs in a quantifiable way, prioritizing buy local. Translate needs to grower through Farm to School Census.

        • CFA has done some work on analyzing the farm to school census data. Some of that was presented at the Local Food Systems Summit. Laurie White plans to do some more work and share the findings.
        • Laurie White (CFA) convened a group to plan a farm to summer meals week, which involved creating a toolkit for meal sponsors (most of which are schools) and a toolkit for farmers and farmers markets. Summer is peak produce, so we might as well capitalize on the season and the growth in summer feeding.
        • TFC Value Chain Coordinators continue to work with school food service directors to connect them with local food.
          • Success Story—Barren County Schools is expanding their summer bag program (initiated in 2024 by TFC’s WKY VCC).

        b. Consider possibility of creating points for award with state school nutrition association for food service directors using KY Proud.

        c. Farm-to-school relationship-building: Work with KDA administering USDA $3.2M farm to school grant by April 2025 with goal continue local products going into 80-90 schools (all KY farm foods) when grant is completed. End date is April 2025 for full expenditure. Share success stories and institutional models for future use.

          • Laurie planned two information sessions with Kentucky Proud on the Buy Local incentive for schools. The idea was to help schools that were utilizing LFS transition to using Buy Local. There is a recording available on YouTube.
          • TFC VCC’s worked with school districts who still had money to spend with local producers to ensure grant funds were spent on Kentucky farm products.

        d. Look at similar or neighboring states who have robust farm to school or state institution statewide requirements to learn best practices e.g. West Virginia buy local model and Tennessee.

        When?  Winter 2024-2025

        Tactic 3: Distributor Expansion

        Encourage/discover incentive structure for distributors to expand purchasing from more KY farmers and refine traceability/farm identify. 

        a. Expand sub-hubs and customer base through purchasing KY farm products. Look into information coordinator or hub potential to direct buyers.

        b. Consider vendor requirements (e.g. % of purchasing KY products) for those with state contracts. Standardization of food safety audit types.

        • KDA -- While formal requirements are under policy consideration, voluntary adoption is being incentivized through branded Kentucky Proud marketing assets. These include custom vented produce bags used at point-of-sale in Houchens-affiliated and independent grocery stores, signaling verified participation in local food promotion and compliance with traceability goals. These visual tools serve as both consumer-facing education and a soft incentive for vendor participation in local sourcing initiatives.
        • TFC has successfully advocated for a contract containing specific and measurable KPIs for Kentucky farm impact food purchasing with KSU and their new food service management company (will go into effect July 1, 2025).
        • TFC continues to advocate for Kentucky Venues to include specific and measurable KPIs for Kentucky farm and business impact food in their contract with their new food service management company.

        c. Demonstrate growth in specialty crops.

        • The expanded use of Kentucky Proud-branded packaging for in-season, homegrown specialty crops—particularly fruits and vegetables—demonstrates both consumer demand and supply chain responsiveness. These packaging innovations help facilitate participation in Kentucky Double Dollars and make local specialty crops more accessible and appealing at retail, thereby supporting both farmer revenue and crop diversification.
        • TFC continues to build market demand for Kentucky grown specialty crops across mid-large scale market channels (e.g., restaurants, K-12 schools, colleges/universities, hospitals, retailers, etc.)

        d. Help farmers understanding of processor/distributor requirements across all types of farms and traceability. 

          • Through collaborative efforts with participating retailers, Kentucky Proud is helping producers better understand how traceability translates into retail success. Pre-packaged, clearly branded local produce offers a retail-ready solution that aligns with both consumer expectations and distributor requirements. These strategies not only improve farm visibility but also illustrate how farmers can meet processor and market standards through packaging, labeling, and transparency.
          • TFC Value Chain Coordination and Cultivate Kentucky teams continue to provide one on one technical assistance to farmers interested in selling to processors and distributors including, but not limited to, third-party GAP audit preparation, food safety plan preparation, market readiness assessment, and relationship building with scale-appropriate buyers.
          • TFC developing a toolkit for producers to help them navigate market channels.

        When?  November 2024-2025

        Project Leads

        Partners for Delivery

        Collaborators

        Economic Development Working Group

        Tactic 4: Grow Grain Infrastructure

        Increase grain production, storage, and processing in Kentucky. Help farmers understand quality concerns, processing needs, storage options, and market channels (need more clarification).

        When? November 2024-2025

        Where? Grower meetings and communications

        Project Leads

        Partners for Delivery

        Collaborators

        Ag Diversification & Innovation Working Group, Value-Added Working Group, Economic Development Working Group, KY Distillers’ Assn. 

        The Kentucky Agricultural Council is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
        Administrative Address: PO Box 722, Shepherdsville, KY 40165

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