By Amanda Loviza/Farm to Fork

Kentucky is the biggest beef cattle producer east of the Mississippi River, raising 800,000 head of cattle each year. But the odds of finding a steak that is 100 percent Kentuckian—born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the state—are slim. Only four percent of the beef consumed in Kentucky was actually processed [Read More]

Local Kentucky farmers answer the question “why do you farm?”
Videos by: Colleen Stewart and Regina Durkan
VINEYARD- David Hall, owner of Black Oak Vineyard in Princeton, Ky.

vineyard why i farm from Fleischaker-Greene Scholars on Vimeo.
HONEYBEES- Dale Rose, owner of Rose Honey Bee Farm in Morgantown, Ky.

bees from Fleischaker-Greene Scholars on Vimeo.
DAIRY- Carl Cheney, owner of Cheney’s [Read More]

Drew Mitchell/Farm to Fork
A legislative op-ed.
In a time where outbreaks of the fatal and disgusting E. coli bacteria are as common as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hold the salmonella, please, the District of Columbia and its 100 part-time residents, members of the 111th Senate of the United States of America, should be buckling down [Read More]

By Drew Mitchell/Farm to Fork
Barbara Banton, a long-time resident of Bowling Green, Ky., lost her job when she had a stroke at work. Recovering from the traumatic event was especially hard for Banton because she is a diabetic.
Banton needed healthy food to recover, but she could barely afford to eat at all.
For a few weeks [Read More]

Cheetos and ginger ale were not what Colorado schoolteacher Mendy Heaps thought her students should be eating for lunch, so she started selling fresh fruit out of an overhead projector cart. Kids, parents and teachers loved it, but the principal put a stop to it.

By Regina Durkan/Farm to Fork
In recent years, farmers have been seeking ever more ways to increase income to their farms. Farmers who used to “just farm” now process, distribute and sell goods and hold tourist events at their establishments.
According to Carl Chaney, owner of Chaney’s Dairy Barn in Bowling Green, Ky., it’s becoming harder and [Read More]

By Sam Oldenburg/Farm toFork
Catfish, strawberries, garbanzo beans, flour and walnuts: what do they all have in common?  These foods are just some of the nearly 200 USDA foods school food services have to choose from.
USDA foods, commonly called commodities, are foods purchased by the United States Department of Agriculture to be used for the National School [Read More]

By Regina Durkan/Farm to Fork
Wes Berry is an English professor at Western Kentucky University who is moving away from big corporations for his food. But instead of just buying his food from local farmers, Berry has decided to become a farmer himself, albeit on a small scale. Within the last two years, he’s started raising [Read More]

By Celeste Laurent/Farm to Fork
Kentucky is home to 38,000 beef farmers and more cattle than any other state east of the Mississippi River.
Growing up on a family beef cattle farm, I know first-hand that Kentucky farmers play an integral part in producing American beef.
This process is much more complex than people often realize. There are [Read More]

By Drew Mitchell/Farm to Fork

Shoppers eagerly flocked to buy produce, herbs, cut flowers, cheeses, crafts, organic pasta sauce, and even composted manure early Saturday morning as the Southern Kentucky Regional Farmers Market opened for the season.