Partners for Family Farms

Educational Projects

1.Partners for Family Farms has supported the meetings, membership, and activity work of the Friends of the Farmers Market organization in Lexington, Kentucky. Friends of Farmers Market membership organization supports the downtown Lexington Farmers Market in advertising, conducting special events surrounding seasonal purchases of local produce items, and public awareness about local food production. In addition, the Friends of Farmers Market is assessing the feasibility and working towards the creation of a public market in Lexington which would incorporate locally produced farm products as part of its offering. Partners for Family Farms continues to support this organization and looks to support similar groups throughout the state. 2. Partners for Family Farms has supported and helped sponsor both the Ohio Valley Harvest Festival in Louisville, Kentucky and the Central Kentucky Harvest Festival in Lexington, Kentucky. Sue Weant, with Partners for Family Farms, is known as the "face" of Harvest Festivals and has been called on by Kentucky county farmers markets as well as by organizations in other states to give visual presentations about her work in this area. The knowledge and experience of how to coordinate a harvest festival, recruit producers, recruit restaurant chefs, secure locations, and interpret health department regulations surrounding an open-air food event are of interest to many.

3. Partners for Family Farms helped support the First Annual Kentucky Women in Agriculture Conference's "A Taste of Kentucky" food event showcasing Kentucky produced food products. This is just one example of the type of activity where Partners can create an opportunity to connect the farmers and the consumers. At this food event, like many others, education of the consumer helps to put a "face" on the food products. In turn, consumers are present to put a "face" on the dollars those food products bring to the farm. Relationships are forged between farmer and consumer along the issue of locally produced food products. Not only is there a potential for both farmers and consumers to benefit, but Partners for Family Farms benefits by attracting awareness to our own organization and locating new membership.

SMMART Group Projects 1. The Safe Meat Marketing Alternatives through Research and training Group (SMMART) has researched the number, names, location, and product received information of every available meat and poultry processor in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, both USDA-inspected and custom plants. This work led to the production of a publication entitled "Directory of Kentucky Livestock Processing Facilities" which provides farmers and others access to the knowledge of where they can take their animals for processing. From this research, it was learned that there are very few USDA-inspected red meat processing plants around the state which will receive animals from independent farmers. There is no USDA-inspected processing plant for poultry in Kentucky that will accept farm stock from independent farmers. In addition, the SMMART Group learned the critical fact that Kentucky state health officials do not offer regulation of any poultry processing under USDA's quantity exemption rules putting our farmers at a disadvantage in the marketplace. Virtually every state adjacent to Kentucky and in the Southeast provides standards an inspection for some level of small-scale processing of poultry other than the Commonwealth. Knowing this fact, the SMMART Group has brought to the table inspectors from USDA and state health officials to meet with farmers, custom processors, university researchers, and others to exchange information and look for ways to legally open up the small farm to the direct market.
	From these meetings, plans are underway for a multi-species mobile processing unit. This mobile plant would meet the USDA quantity exemption, be regulated by our state health officials, be certified by HASCCAP guidelines, and allow farmers across the state access to a safe, legal processing facility. This will open up the direct market to poultry, aquaculture and other species of small farm livestock. For more information about the mobile processing unity, contact Steve Muntz with our partner on this project, Heifer Project International: steve.muntz@heifer.org.
2. Work of the SMMART Group through Partners for Family Farms in 1999 includes the upgrade of a red meat custom processor to USDA inspected. The processor cooperator, C & W, in Cynthiana, Kentucky has overcome many obstacles such as securing financing, training of the newly required HACCAP safety inspection procedures, location improvement after the 1997 flood, while still trying to maintain a profitable business. The SMMART Group took applications from custom processors all around the state before choosing C & W for the upgrade. Although not able to expand large enough for poultry processing, C & W will be able to slaughter and process all red-meat animals for regional farmers, providing them access to the direct market. For example, their beef can be legally sold by the package cut to restaurants, retail stores, groceries, and consumers bringing a higher dollar per pound rather than selling a whole live animal for freezer beef to a single consumer. For more information on this project, contact Sue Weant, Partners for Family Farms: msdweant@aol.com.