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Learning in the Field: High Tunnel Production at Old Home Place Farm

CFA Admin

Rain and all, we had a wonderful turnout at our recent field day at Old Home Place Farm, and it was exactly the kind of day that reminds us why on-farm learning is some of our favorite work.

Joining Maggie were experts from several of our partner organizations, each bringing their own area of depth to the day. Kayla Preston from Grow Appalachia walked attendees through high tunnel construction, maintenance, and water collection and distribution strategies. Dakota Moore from Kentucky Horticulture Council led a tour of Maggie’s packing shed with a focus on best practices for safe post-harvest handling. And Sarah Geurkink from the Organic Association of Kentucky shared guidance on early pest detection and building good soil health. It was a rich day of learning, and we are grateful to each of them for making the trip.

CFA member and farmer Maggie Bowling opened up her farm and her knowledge to a full crowd, sharing the niche tips and tricks she has built over more than ten years of high tunnel production. Maggie manages a 75-member CSA and has navigated two major flooding events along the way. Maggie has the kind of hard-won, real-world experience you simply cannot get from a handbook. We are so grateful to her for hosting and for sharing so generously with everyone who came out.

Field days like this one are what CFA membership looks and feels like in practice: farmers, partners, and community members learning together, on the land, from people who are doing the work. If you are not yet a CFA member and want to be part of gatherings like this one, we would love to have you. Membership is how you stay connected to the network, the knowledge, and the people moving Kentucky’s food and farm community forward.

More field days are coming this summer, so stay tuned for dates and locations. In the meantime, follow CFA and Kentucky Horticulture Council to keep up with events, resources, and what is growing across the state.

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Growing Together: How Emily Smith, CFA Member, Builds Bridges Between the Kentucky Food System and Agriculture

CFA Admin

When Emily thinks about food, she thinks about it from many different angles. In Cooperative Extension at Kentucky State University, she gets to work closely with communities and their food. On a personal level, she values where her food comes from. “Most of us are eaters,” she says, “and I really like to eat high-quality foods and the closest ones I can get are the highest quality.” That perspective helped shape what she brings to her work and to her membership in CFA. For a short clip of what value Emily gets from and brings to CFA, click here.

Emily’s job at KSU puts her at the intersection of of public health and agriculture, working with people in their community so they can improve their agricultural conditions for themselves, understand health, and access foods that are relevant to them. Alongside that community-facing work, she also wants to keep a close eye on state and federal policy. Becoming a member of CFA has enabled Emily to more effectively keep up-to-date on policy and, on a personal level, to better understand the impacts of policy on our food system and how our food system can shape policy.

Before Emily came across CFA, she was chasing information from many different sources. Staying current on ag policy meant cobbling together information across multiple tabs and email lists, tracking down legislative priorities, understanding how federal policy was reshaping state decisions, and keeping up with what was happening for farmers, schools, and communities across Kentucky’s 120 counties all at once. “I was looking at a million different sites,” she recalls.

Joining CFA, changed how Emily could interact with and understand the food system and related policy. CFA gave her a single place to track what was happening at both the state and the federal levels from school nutrition policy to farmer priorities to food access issues. It also gave her a place to listen to people with deep and specific knowledge of the places she was trying to understand and the situations she didn’t yet know about. “I have lots of experts I can rely on,” she says, “to tell me what the conditions in western Kentucky are, where there are so many poultry farms, or how things are going in eastern Kentucky through recovery from floods.”

A practical tool she found which uses directly in her community work is  CFA’s Farmers Market Resources, which helps reconnect people in Jefferson County with local farmers. “Learning about who’s growing what and where has been really helpful. It enhances the quality of life,” she says.

What makes Emily’s CFA membership meaningful isn’t just what she receives, it’s what she contributes. As a public health practitioner and a disaster preparedness specialist, she brings knowledge that farmers and food system partners genuinely need. She can help agriculture producers understand how to protect their crops, livestock, and property from floods, high winds, and other disasters. Increasingly that’s a capacity that has become important in the aftermath of the Eastern Kentucky floods. “It’s been really rewarding for me on that end,” she says.

She also serves as a translator between the policy world and her community. When CFA’s work helped her understand new state rules around home processing, she took that knowledge directly back to the people she works with, including small beekeepers and poultry producers. “I get to learn and teach. It’s just a really great place for me to be,” she says.

Why does this matter?

For Emily, the through line of it all from policy to extension to farmers market to disaster preparedness, comes back to something simple: “Everybody needs access to good quality food to make sure they can start somewhere healthy, from the littlest among us to the oldest among us.” What CFA has given her is a richer, more textured understanding of who’s making that food possible. Meeting agricultural producers in Kentucky and listening to their own stories has made her better at her job. “I have a lot more personal experience now. I hear those stories straight from people and that just makes my job easier and makes me better at it,” she says.

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What’s Happening with the Farm Bill and What It Means for Kentucky

CFA Admin

June 23, 2026

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As we discussed last time, the House has passed their version of the Farm Bill (CFA’s May 1 Article). Today, the Senate moved that process forward, releasing a draft that sets up a committee vote this summer. For CFA members, farmers market operators, food access partners, and anyone who cares about where Kentucky’s food comes from, this legislation has direct implications. Here is a look at the timeline and what is at stake for the programs closest to our farmers and communities. If you want a primer on what the Farm Bill is and how it works, we have a Farm Bill Basics video that covers the basics. This update picks up from there.

Local Food and Farm to Community Programs

One of the more significant developments in the House Farm Bill is the creation of a new program called Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities. The program would direct USDA to partner with state agencies and tribal governments to fund the purchase and distribution of locally grown food to schools, food banks, and other community organizations. It is designed as a permanent, ongoing program with up to $200 million in annual funding.

This matters for Kentucky because it would create a stable, long term funding stream for connecting small and mid size farms to institutional buyers. In recent years, programs that served this function were ended before farmers who had planned around them could fully adjust. A permanent replacement, if it makes it through the Senate and into the final bill, would give farms and state agencies a more reliable foundation to build on.

The House bill also maintains the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), which funds grants supporting farmers markets, food hubs, and value added agriculture. CFA and many of our partner organizations have used LAMP funding, and its continuation is important for food systems work across the state.

Food as Medicine and Produce Prescriptions

The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, known as GusNIP, is the federal program that makes produce prescriptions and farmers market SNAP match programs possible. It funds competitive grants for projects that help people who receive SNAP have access to more fruits and vegetables and also provides produce prescriptions for people that have a diet related disease access fruits and vegetables.  This is often through partnerships with healthcare providers, farmers markets, and community organizations. Programs like CFA’s Kentucky Double Dollars and Fresh Rx for MOMs are built on this foundation.

GusNIP is reauthorized in the House Farm Bill with several updates that matter for Kentucky. The bill would reduce or eliminate the federal matching fund requirement for grantees in counties with persistently high poverty, which affects many counties in Eastern and Western Kentucky where match is often the hardest barrier to meet. The bill also expands produce prescription programs to include all forms of fruits, vegetables, and legumes, not just fresh produce, which can make a real difference for rural areas with limited fresh food access year round.

GusNIP has bipartisan support, and advocates in both chambers have pushed for increased funding. The House bill reauthorizes the program but does not increase its overall funding level, which is a point of continued advocacy as the Senate moves forward.

Farm to School

Schools are explicitly named as eligible recipients under the new Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities program described above, which makes this a significant potential win for farm to school efforts. State agencies could use program funding to connect local and regional farms directly to school cafeterias, building the kind of relationships between farmers and institutions that CFA and our partners have been working to support.

Farm Safety Net Programs

Federal safety net programs for farmers, including commodity price supports and crop insurance, are among the longest standing parts of the Farm Bill. Both the House and Senate proposals aim to update these programs significantly. The 2018 Farm Bill used commodity price reference points based on data from 2012, and input costs, land values, and market conditions have changed dramatically since then. Updating those reference prices is a priority for farm organizations across the political spectrum and is expected to be included in whatever final bill Congress passes.

For small and diversified farms, the safety net discussion also connects to conservation programs. Both the House and Senate versions propose shifts in how conservation funding is structured, with funding implications for like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) that many Kentucky farmers use to invest in high tunnels, cover crops, and other practices.

The Federal Budget Process: A Separate but Parallel Track

The Farm Bill and the federal appropriations process are two separate things, and both are moving at the same time. The Farm Bill sets the policies and program structures. The annual appropriations process sets the actual funding levels. Both matter, and right now both are in motion.

The House passed its FY2027 Agriculture and FDA appropriations bill (H.R. 8646) on June 3 by a narrow 213 to 210 vote. At $26 billion in total discretionary spending, it is $380 million below the FY2026 level. The Senate has not yet acted. Markups that were scheduled for June 25 were postponed, in part because Kentucky’s Sen. McConnell’s presence is needed for Republicans to move bills out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. That means the Senate version is still being shaped, and it is the version that matters most for what ultimately gets funded.

For programs that CFA members and partners work with directly, here is what the House appropriations bill proposes and what is still at stake in the Senate.

WIC: Nutrition Support for Women, Infants, and Children

WIC provides targeted nutrition support to pregnant women, new mothers, and children under five, and is a direct point of connection between local farms and low income families. The House FY2027 bill cuts WIC by $200 million below the FY2026 level of $8.2 billion, and reduces the cash value benefit that families use to purchase fruits and vegetables by 10 percent. That cash value benefit is the piece most directly linked to farmers market and produce prescription programs. Advocates warn that cuts at this level could result in states having to turn away eligible families for the first time in decades. Kentucky WIC serves over 100,000 participants annually, many of them in rural communities where WIC is the primary nutrition support available.

A related issue is virtual WIC certification. Phone and video appointment options, which allow rural participants to enroll without traveling long distances to a clinic, are currently set to expire September 30, 2026. Bipartisan legislation to make these options permanent has support in both chambers but was not included in the House appropriations bill. This authority could also be addressed in the Farm Bill nutrition title.

GusNIP: Produce Prescriptions and Farmers Market Incentives

GusNIP is funded through both mandatory Farm Bill dollars and annual appropriations, and demand from states has consistently outpaced available funding. There is currently a $32 million gap between what the program is funded at and what states are requesting. Programs like CFA’s Kentucky Double Dollars depend on competitive GusNIP grants (and state level funding) to operate. The House Farm Bill reauthorizes the program with some positive updates for high poverty counties, but does not increase the overall funding level. Senate appropriators will have an opportunity to address that gap in the FY2027 bill.

Conservation, Rural Development, and Research

The House bill also cuts conservation funding for farmers by nearly 8 percent, reduces Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) funding by 17 percent, cuts the Farm Service Agency budget that provides loans and support to farmers in financial hardship, and reduces rural broadband investment by 20 percent. The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which supplies food banks, is also cut from FY2026 levels. These are programs that Kentucky communities rely on, and the Senate appropriations process is where they can be protected or restored.

The Sticking Point: Food Assistance Cost Sharing

The biggest unresolved issue in Farm Bill negotiations is a provision passed in 2025 that will gradually require some states to cover a portion of their food assistance program costs. States with higher payment error rates will bear a larger share of those costs. Democrats in the Senate have said they will not support a Farm Bill that does not delay or revise this provision. Republicans, including Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Boozman, have indicated there are limits to what they can agree to given budget constraints, and the Senate draft released today does not include the delay Democrats are seeking.

This means the Farm Bill will need 60 votes to pass the Senate, which requires some bipartisan support. Whether that support materializes before the September 30 deadline, or whether Congress opts for another short term extension, remains the central open question.

What Comes Next

The next few months are as active as federal agriculture policy gets. The Senate committee is expected to vote on its Farm Bill draft in late July or early August. If and when it passes, the House and Senate will need to go to conference to negotiate a final version. At the same time, the Senate appropriations process for FY2027 is still ahead. These two tracks are moving together, and both will shape what is funded and what is not for the next several years.

CFA will continue tracking the legislation most relevant to our members and partners. The section below outlines specific actions you can take right now to make your voice heard.

How to Take Action

The Senate appropriations process is the best near term opportunity to protect the programs described above. Kentucky’s senators sit on committees that directly shape these decisions, and constituent contact from farmers, market operators, and food access organizations carries real weight. Here are the most pressing asks:

  • Fully fund WIC at or above the FY2026 level of $8.2 billion, and protect the fruit and vegetable cash value benefit. The House bill cuts WIC by $200 million and reduces the produce benefit by 10 percent. Kentucky WIC serves over 100,000 participants annually, many of them in rural communities where WIC is the primary nutrition support available. Urge your senators to restore full funding in the Senate appropriations bill.
  • Make virtual WIC certification permanent, or extend the current authority past its September 30, 2026 expiration. Phone and video certification options are the difference between enrollment and dropout for many rural Kentucky participants who face long drives to reach a WIC clinic. Bipartisan legislation to make these options permanent could be included in the Senate appropriations bill or the Farm Bill nutrition title. 
  • Protect and increase funding for GusNIP. Demand already exceeds available funding by $32 million. GusNIP is the federal foundation for produce prescription programs and farmers market incentives across Kentucky, and it keeps dollars with local farmers while improving health outcomes for low income Kentuckians. Senators can address the funding gap in the appropriations bill.
  • Support a delay in the implementation of new state food assistance cost sharing requirements. The 2025 provision shifting some food assistance costs to states is moving forward faster than many states can absorb. A delay would give Kentucky and other states time to adjust without disrupting services to families already enrolled.

To reach Kentucky’s congressional delegation, visit senate.gov and house.gov to find contact information. Calls and letters from farmers, farmers market operators, and community organizations are among the most effective forms of constituent outreach. If you have a story about how any of these programs affect your farm or community, sharing it directly with your senators’ offices is one of the most valuable things you can do right now. If you want help with how to reach out and share your story, or would like us to assist with sharing your story to the most appropriate legislator, please contact info@cfaky.org.

Sources: Torrey Advisory Group federal policy update (June 23, 2026); Brownfield Ag News; Politico/E&E News; National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Farm Bill analysis; Congressional Research Service comparison of H.R. 7567; Agri-Pulse; National Association of Counties.

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PRIME Act and the Farm Bill

CFA Admin

When the new Farm Bill came out of the House of Representatives at the end of April, a KY Representative was able to add something that would help farmers sell locally raised meat directly to consumers. The Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act (PRIME Act) isn’t anything new, as it was first introduced in 2015. The PRIME Act was intended to allow custom slaughterhouses to process farmers meat, which they can  sell directly to consumers and local restaurants (within state lines), bypassing the need for a USDA inspector to be present on-site.

Expand for links to sponsors and bill language here

The PRIME Act is bipartisan legislation. Reps. Massie (R-KY) and Pingree (D-ME) introduced the legislation on July 23, 2025. Companion legislation, S.2409, has been introduced in the United States Senate by Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Rand Paul (R-KY). Legislative text for HR 4700, the PRIME Act, is available at this link. A current list of cosponsors is available at this link. 

After it did not pass in 2015, it was proposed again during the COVID pandemic. Because COVID-19 shut down many large, USDA-approved meatpacking plants, the PRIME Act would have helped small farmers and reduced meat shortages. While the PRIME Act specifically was not included, COVID-19 relief legislation did contain other agricultural funding, including loans for small-sized food processors and meat packers. 

Once those COVID-19 relief packages were ended by the end of 2022, the 2023 Farm Bill seemed like the best opportunity to hopefully help improve and strengthen the local food system. Now, after almost 3 years of postponing the Farm Bill the House of Representatives finally passed their version on April 30, 2026. Included in the House version is a pilot program for the PRIME Act, put forth by KY Representative Thomas Massie.

“I am excited to announce that a pilot program for the PRIME Act is included in this year’s Farm Bill,” said Rep. Thomas Massie. “This means consumers can soon expect increased access to locally raised and processed beef, pork, and lamb sold directly from farmers, and farmers will no longer be burdened by the hefty and costly U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) constraints that force them to drive hundreds of miles with their animals to the few and sparse USDA facilities, as currently required.”

Requirements for state participation and facility operation include:

  • State Requirements
    • Approval: States must apply to participate in the pilot program
    • Cap On Facilities: State programs are limited to approving 5 custom-exempt operations to participate
    • Intrastate Limitation: All distribution and sales must occur entirely within the state where the facility is located
    • Reporting: Each year the state department of agriculture operating a pilot program must submit to the Secretary a report detailing the number and location of custom-exempt facilities selling meat products and the outcomes of each one, any instances in which a meat product was subject to an emergency action, and aggregated data on the volume of meat being processed under the pilot program
  • Operating Requirements
    • Compliance: All facilities must comply with all applicable state and local laws, the Humane Methods Slaughter Act of 1958, and section 23(d) of the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Participating facilities be subject to onsite inspection by the Secretary to ensure compliance as well as onsite inspection annually by the local authority responsible for restaurant inspections or the State department of agriculture   
    • Sanitation and Recordkeeping: Participating facilities must follow federal regulations regarding sanitation standards, recordkeeping, and the handling of the specified risk materials. 
  • Labeling Requirements
    • The name and address of the processing facility 
    • The name and address of the animal’s owner
    • The location where the animals were raised
    • The date of slaughter and the duration the owner raised the animal 
    • Explicit notice that the meat was not subject to federal inspection
    • A warning that the product shall not be resold

Also, a thing of note is that under the PRIME Act, local inspectors, rather than USDA inspectors, could inspect meat production facilities and any regulations governing meat distribution could be adjusted to allow more convenient access for consumers. The PRIME Act would give individual states the freedom to permit intrastate distribution of locally grown and slaughtered meat directly to consumers.

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Kentucky Farmers & Farmworkers — Participate in a Skin Cancer Awareness Research Survey

CFA Admin

Researchers at Kentucky State University are conducting a USDA-funded study focused on skin cancer awareness, prevention, and early detection among small, limited-resource, and minority farmers and farmworkers across Kentucky.

The survey aims to better understand:

  • Awareness and attitudes surrounding skin cancer
  • Current sun protection practices
  • Barriers to prevention and early detection
  • The overall impact of skin cancer risk within farming communities

Survey participants will complete approximately 50 questions, which takes about 30 minutes. The survey may be completed electronically, by mail, or in person during workshops. Participants can pause and return to the survey at any time.

Participation is voluntary and confidential. All responses will be coded and reported only in aggregate form. The study has been approved by KSU’s Institutional Review Board in accordance with USDA requirements.

By participating, farmers and farmworkers can help shape future education efforts and prevention strategies that support healthier farming communities across Kentucky.

For questions or additional information, contact:

  • Dr. Frederick Bebe — frederick.bebe@kysu.edu
  • Dorothy Daley — dorothy.daley@kysu.edu