Relevance: The Cultivate KY partnership is a collaborative initiative, spearheaded by The Food Connection, aimed at growing our specialty crop sector in Kentucky, with a particular emphasis on farm to institution supply chains. Our efforts are focused on produce growers, and specifically supporting producers’ adaptation to rapid changes in produce food safety regulation and auditing. Our partnership is composed of on and off campus partners from across the food and farm system including The Kentucky Horticulture Council, the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD), the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA), the Food Systems Innovation Center (FSIC), the Center for Crop Diversification (CCD), and the UK Horticultural Research Farm (South Farm). We work together in developing strategic and innovative programming to support the development of wholesale ready producers in the Commonwealth. Our program’s Senior Extension Associate, Bryan Brady, and Extension Associate, Courtney Bartlett, work directly with Kentucky farmers and food aggregators, and delivers both one-on-one technical assistance, field days, workshops, webinars, and publications.

Response: There continues to be demand from Kentucky produce growers and local food buyers for this service.

Results: When we started our technical assistance efforts in 2016, there were 6 third-party GAP audited farms in the state. At last check, there are now 84 third-party GAP audited farms, 52 of which received direct technical assistance from our Cultivate Kentucky Extension Associates. Of those 52 growers we worked directly with, 17 were able to access new market channels and 26 were able to expand or maintain sales in existing markets via the support of the Cultivate Kentucky Partnership.  

Public Value Statement: This type of targeted technical assistance is directly impacting Kentucky produce growers' ability to access large scale wholesale market channels and serves as a model for other states.