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Why Every Grower Should Know the Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association
33 Plays1 hour ago
This spring-themed episode opens with the crew swapping stories about wild temperature swings, allergy struggles, ornamental pears, and a “secret bucket of crystallized honey” before welcoming guest Nathan Howell of Need More Acres Farm and the Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association.
Nathan shares the story of his family’s highly intensive, small-acreage, year-round produce farm and how high tunnels, row covers, and protected culture allow them to grow vegetables 12 months a year in Kentucky. What sounds “small” in row-crop terms is actually incredibly productive in horticulture, with multiple crops moving through the same ground in a single year.
The conversation shifts into marketing strategies for small farms—from farmers markets and restaurants to schools, health departments, and medically tailored food boxes that support both their farm and dozens of other local producers.
Nathan then dives into his leadership role with the Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association (est. 1970) and how this farmer-led, volunteer organization focuses on education, advocacy, and networking for growers of all sizes—from backyard gardeners to commercial producers. The group co-hosts the long-standing Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference, known for its highly targeted, practical programming and uniquely broad age and experience range among attendees.
A major highlight of the episode is real-world advocacy in action. Nathan explains how the association recently worked with partners like the Kentucky Horticulture Council to successfully push for restoration of cost-share funding levels through the County Ag Improvement Program (CAIP), protecting crucial support for small and beginning vegetable growers. They are also currently working with Kentucky Farm Bureau and state legislators to correct a sales tax issue affecting greenhouse and high tunnel materials used in protected agriculture.
The episode closes with discussion of unexpected member benefits of the association—from advocacy and conference access to life assistance resources and insurance perks—all for a very low annual membership cost.
This episode is a powerful look at how grassroots grower organizations, practical education, and producer voices working together continue to shape the future of vegetable production in Kentucky.
Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association
KENTUCKY OFFICE OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Spring Arrival and Sunburn Weather
00:00:16
Alexis
Hi, friends. Welcome to spring.
00:00:19
Plant People
The sun shines bright as as we are recording today.
00:00:19
Brett
Oh,
00:00:19
Jessica
It's here.
00:00:23
Plant People
So it's not too warm out though. little bit of a temperature swing.
00:00:26
Brett
the Equinox is coming gone.
00:00:27
Alexis
ah a little bit is an understatement.
00:00:28
Plant People
Yeah. Good one, Brad.
00:00:29
Alexis
A heck of a temperature swing.
00:00:30
Plant People
Yeah.
00:00:32
Alexis
I think we're all struggling with it.
00:00:32
Plant People
Yeah.
00:00:34
Alexis
Uh-huh.
00:00:34
Jessica
i had to wear a winter hat outside this morning.
00:00:35
Plant People
I would like to see him.
00:00:38
Alexis
Uh-huh.
00:00:38
Jessica
was cold.
00:00:38
Alexis
But it was like sunburn weather two days ago. so
00:00:41
Jessica
Yes.
00:00:42
Alexis
ah
00:00:42
Jessica
Yep.
00:00:43
Brett
But if you wear the hat now, does it become a spring hat?
00:00:46
Plant People
I don't think it's like a, i imagine Jessica, if you're feeding the cattle, Jessica, that was not a Derby hat, I'm guessing.
00:00:52
Jessica
No, no. It was definitely a winter winter wear.
00:00:55
Brett
A fascinator.
00:00:56
Jessica
Yes, it was a fascinator. The cows really appreciated it.
00:00:58
Brett
i see.
00:00:59
Plant People
ah ah Okay.
00:00:59
Brett
They were fascinated.
00:00:59
Jessica
They thought it was cute.
00:01:00
Alexis
They were fascinated by your fascinator.
00:01:01
Jessica
um They're fascinated by it Yeah.
00:01:04
Plant People
My mental picture picture is already really weird of this whole hat scenario.
00:01:08
Brett
ah second
00:01:08
Plant People
Hopefully it didn't scare the cattle. That's all I'm saying.
00:01:10
Alexis
It was Cal print.
00:01:10
Jessica
Yeah.
Guest Introduction: Nathan Howell
00:01:11
Brett
ah We have a guest today, Nathan Howell from Neymar Acres Farm in Kentucky ah Vegetable Growers Association.
00:01:11
Plant People
Okay.
00:01:13
Jessica
Anyway.
00:01:17
Brett
Welcome, Nathan.
00:01:18
Nathan Howell
Thank you. Glad to be here today.
00:01:21
Brett
He's just jumping right on the train of of whatever it is we we do here. um Alexis, do you have a do you have an opening thought-provoking question for us.
00:01:26
Plant People
shaking his head at us already. Like, what have I gotten that to
00:01:31
Alexis
Yes, very thought-provoking. How's everybody's allergies doing right now? cause
00:01:37
Plant People
Why did we have to bring that up, Alexis?
00:01:39
Jessica
um
00:01:40
Alexis
Because I'm on the struggle bus and I just need us to collectively just be together on this.
00:01:46
Plant People
Like, yeah, yes.
00:01:46
Nathan Howell
The local honey business is good.
00:01:49
Alexis
Yeah, I know.
00:01:49
Jessica
is gonna say I eat like three tablespoons of honey a day.
00:01:50
Plant People
if If my eyes are any indication of that, yes, a nose and ears stop, yeah.
00:01:57
Nathan Howell
yeah
00:01:57
Jessica
and because I was very defensive over my extra bucket of honey that I had hidden in my house, my in-laws took to sell to people. That was my my children's and mine's.
00:02:06
Alexis
How dare.
00:02:08
Plant People
I was going to say your children would find that bucket and then they would eat that bucket of honey.
00:02:09
Jessica
Yeah, it was our our secret bucket, our secret three.
00:02:12
Plant People
Yeah.
00:02:12
Nathan Howell
That the stockpile.
00:02:12
Alexis
Our secret bucket of honey.
00:02:13
Nathan Howell
and
00:02:14
Plant People
The secret bucket of honey.
00:02:14
Jessica
It was our secret. It was our secret three gallon crystallized bucket of honey.
00:02:18
Alexis
That's some Winnie the Pooh stuff right there, Jess.
00:02:18
Plant People
oh
00:02:20
Jessica
Yeah.
00:02:20
Brett
I was going to say, you're hoarding honey.
00:02:21
Jessica
And we would.
00:02:23
Brett
You are not beating the mama bear allegations now for sure.
00:02:23
Jessica
Yeah.
00:02:26
Plant People
No, no, that's going to stick.
00:02:26
Jessica
And we would scoop it out and everybody would get their
Farm Operations and Local Health Efforts
00:02:30
Jessica
scoop of crystallized honey. And then now they took it.
00:02:32
Brett
know.
00:02:33
Jessica
And then what did they return to me? Just a quart of uncrystallized honey that we were almost finished with in less than a month. Yeah.
00:02:39
Plant People
But have i asked you this question before, Jessica? Are you guys comb honey eaters? Because I always was growing up. That was the greatest treat for me is getting honey with comb in. And I know that's expensive when beekeepers do it.
00:02:48
Jessica
i had a Um, some.
00:02:50
Plant People
You have some? Yeah.
00:02:51
Jessica
Yes, I have not given it to my children yet because I have a feeling they'll just eat the wax, which is fine if you do. Like, it's not going to hurt you But um no, we just.
00:02:57
Plant People
That was me. Yeah.
00:03:00
Alexis
But also maybe he could go do it
00:03:02
Jessica
Right. I just like to.
00:03:04
Brett
Oh, see, growing up, the the candle was the delicacy of the birthday cake for for me.
00:03:09
Nathan Howell
There you go.
00:03:09
Jessica
Yeah.
00:03:09
Brett
Maybe.
00:03:10
Plant People
Brett's over there eating. i think that's maybe, ah that's for another discussion with Brett over there eating the candles off the cake.
00:03:11
Jessica
okay
00:03:16
Brett
centrifuge that honey right off the wax and just give me the wax. Yeah.
00:03:19
Plant People
Oh man.
00:03:19
Alexis
it.
00:03:20
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:21
Jessica
yeah
00:03:21
Plant People
it's Good stuff, Brett. that This explains a lot actually, Brett.
00:03:23
Alexis
And now we know why he the way he is.
00:03:24
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:25
Alexis
So, you know, questions have been answered today.
00:03:25
Brett
Yeah.
00:03:25
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:27
Jessica
and It all makes sense now.
00:03:29
Plant People
Yes, it's all coming together. But yeah, allergies, my gosh, as I look around and see all the the ornamental pears that have escaped, and I can practically see a cloud in the air. And I blame a lot of that on them, just because I can.
00:03:42
Alexis
Because you can't.
00:03:42
Plant People
I just, you know, I'm blaming it on them.
00:03:43
Alexis
Yes.
00:03:44
Brett
Easy target, yeah.
00:03:44
Alexis
That's fair.
00:03:45
Plant People
Yeah, seems fair to me.
00:03:45
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:03:47
Plant People
Seems fair. Absolutely.
00:03:50
Brett
Do you all have bees, Nathan?
00:03:52
Nathan Howell
We do. We actually have them seasonally. We have them brought in for pollination purposes.
00:03:57
Brett
Okay.
00:03:58
Nathan Howell
And very fortunate because bees and I do not get along for some reason.
00:04:03
Plant People
Uh-oh.
00:04:03
Brett
Oh.
00:04:04
Nathan Howell
Every time I'm around them, they seem to be attracted to me. But very fortunate to have a guy that brings them in and brings them in for pollination, removes them at the end of the season, and they go south for winter.
00:04:08
Jessica
I like the way you smell.
00:04:16
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:04:17
Brett
We just recently talked with ah Amanda over at the the state apiarist about folks who do just that, the kind of moving bees and some pests that are coming in that may affect it and all all kinds of fun stuff.
00:04:27
Nathan Howell
Yeah, they've got they've got their own set of challenges for sure.
00:04:27
Brett
So if y'all haven't,
00:04:31
Nathan Howell
a
00:04:31
Brett
yeah, if y'all haven't heard that episode, go back and check it out.
00:04:32
Nathan Howell
you try to
00:04:34
Brett
It's it's a good one.
00:04:35
Nathan Howell
We try to be good stewards while they're here for sure. Yeah.
00:04:38
Brett
Yeah. Well, we appreciate you joining us today and and you're, you know, like often the Howell family does, you're wearing multiple hats and representing all kinds of different ah voices and and
Year-Round Farming and Family Involvement at Need More Acres
00:04:50
Brett
perspectives. But I think the two main ones we wanted to hear from you today is at first, we'd love to just hear about your farm, how long you've been doing it, what kind of stuff y'all do.
00:04:59
Nathan Howell
Yeah. Our farm is known as Need More Acres Farm, a very small farm compared to most farms in in Kentucky. Very diverse produce farm.
00:05:10
Nathan Howell
It is a family operated farm, truly is now. We used to say that when the kids were little and they helped out a lot, but now they're young adults and truly part of the farm business and structure.
00:05:25
Nathan Howell
We, like said, primarily produce farm. produce year round. That's probably what separates us a little bit from even produce farms in the state of Kentucky though that we do actually grow something 12 months of the year here.
00:05:39
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:05:40
Nathan Howell
Utilizing high tunnels, protective type structures, road covers. I feel that's where our passion is in trying to progress
00:05:51
Nathan Howell
uh, horticulture and vegetables in the state of Kentucky. Letting folks know that, Hey, we can produce it year, year round.
00:05:55
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:05:58
Nathan Howell
People eat year round and it's needed year round. So, yeah.
00:06:02
Plant People
And I hear you say a small farm, but I feel like in horticulture, we have to quat we have to step back and qualify that a little bit. We maybe should talk about the intensity of production on smaller acreages because small in row crop is different than small in fruit crop, you know, isn't it?
00:06:11
Nathan Howell
Yes.
00:06:13
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:06:15
Nathan Howell
That's you're exactly right.
00:06:16
Plant People
Yeah,
00:06:16
Nathan Howell
Yeah, I think here in the state of Kentucky, a horticulture farm is five acres, if I'm not misquoted there.
00:06:23
Plant People
I think so.
00:06:24
Nathan Howell
ah If you're looking at FSA type definitions, but yeah, you can do a lot of production in ah in a small area. And and of the 20, we actually only produce on about seven.
00:06:40
Nathan Howell
So But on that seven, there could be three crops in that same plot of ground throughout the year. So very intense.
00:06:49
Brett
So you know you got the ag econ guy on here. So so how how is it that you market those crops? Do you do kind of a variety of different market approaches or...
00:06:56
Nathan Howell
We are, since I classify as a smaller scale, yeah, we do a shotgun approach in regards to marketing.
00:07:03
Alexis
Hmm.
00:07:05
Nathan Howell
Primarily backbone would be farmers markets. local area farmers markets that are year-round markets. That was key for us, especially in the beginning.
00:07:12
Jessica
Thank you.
00:07:15
Nathan Howell
If you ask how long we've been around, we've been producing for about 20, 20 some odd years. And at that time, there were very few, if any, there were no farmers markets that were year-round in our area, in Bowling Green area.
00:07:30
Nathan Howell
So like most farmers, we we just started one. and and got the ball rolling and needed that market year round. We do distribute to school systems in the area, restaurants in the area.
00:07:46
Nathan Howell
We've really gotten in the last five years connected with our local health departments and school systems doing food boxes, outreach boxes, special needs boxes for shut-ins in the area.
00:08:03
Nathan Howell
elderly folks that might not be able to make it out and, and special actually mentally medically tailored. I know that's the hot topic everybody's going for, but I mean, I guess we were doing it before it was cool or whatever, but, uh, yeah, dot diabetes type boxes and so forth, small scale again, nothing, nothing large, just enough to support our family farms and, and about, uh, 40 other farms that we've purchased from, uh, in that program.
00:08:34
Brett
I think like like a lot of people who are good at what they do and then also grow to a certain size and they sort of look around at the state and the region and they think, well, we you got to have ah other people doing this. We kind of want to see a stronger industry, stronger you know voice for the producers who are doing this kind of thing. You've ah stepped into over the course of your career, ah some leadership roles and organizations that and And initiatives across the state. I think one of them in particular, we want to talk about a little bit today is this Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association.
00:09:08
Brett
And so um we taught we have talked now, I think, to the the Christmas Tree Association. Was there another one we talked to as well?
00:09:17
Plant People
Yeah, with the forestry folks, but that was kind of through the through the university
Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association: History and Focus
00:09:21
Plant People
secondhand.
00:09:21
Brett
Yeah.
00:09:21
Plant People
But yeah.
00:09:22
Brett
and So so our our goal here is to talk to some of these associations. that we We have really robust, strong support and associations in the state, especially compared to other folks in this region. And so anyway, that's a long long story short on, can you tell us a little bit about the the VGA and how you got involved, what how you've been involved across time?
00:09:41
Brett
I know we've seen each other at conferences off and on for decades now, I guess. um
00:09:47
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:09:48
Brett
Yeah, I'd love to hear about that.
00:09:49
Nathan Howell
Those, those decades go by pretty quick, don't they?
00:09:52
Plant People
fly by They fly by real quick.
00:09:52
Nathan Howell
that Yeah. But yes, I initially started or was invited to be on the Kentucky vegetable growers association board about probably seven years ago.
00:10:05
Nathan Howell
I was very fortunate just last year to be elected president of that board.
00:10:08
Jessica
you
00:10:11
Nathan Howell
And that board has actually been around for many decades. It it was actually established in 1970. So I think we celebrated our 55th anniversary of being a an organization.
00:10:19
Alexis
Thank you.
00:10:24
Nathan Howell
And what that organization is, it's set up as a nonprofit, really focuses on educational outreach, ah advocacy advocacy work in the in the industry,
00:10:38
Nathan Howell
And also networking is is kind of our core purpose of that organization. And the good thing about that organization set aside from some others, that is a farmer, i wouldn't say owned, but it is a farmer controlled.
00:10:55
Nathan Howell
So everybody that sits on that board is a producer, non-paid, no administration, all donated times and hours invested into the,
00:11:07
Nathan Howell
what we believe and what we feel that Kentucky deserves. you know we want to We want to give back what was given to us, in in essence.
00:11:18
Plant People
It's a, it's a, you mentioned it, think ah earlier when we were talking, it's a kind of a nonprofit, but you guys, um I mean, you've done a lot. Is there other organizations in surrounding States like this?
00:11:30
Plant People
I've always kind of been kind of curious that you work with or.
00:11:31
Nathan Howell
there There are some. yeah Yeah, there are some, and some are larger than others, and some are smaller. But yeah, those ah associations are throughout.
00:11:38
Plant People
Yeah.
00:11:41
Nathan Howell
I know there's a Georgia, I believe, has one. Indiana, Illinois, I believe, has a ah produce association.
00:11:48
Plant People
I didn't know if they had ones exactly like you you guys are kind of unique. Like you said, and its you've been around since 1970, which is, which is pretty awesome.
00:11:54
Nathan Howell
Yeah, I think that ah think that age of ours is probably unique in its own point, especially for the state of Kentucky.
00:12:00
Plant People
no
00:12:03
Plant People
Yeah.
00:12:03
Nathan Howell
You we're not known for for produce and vegetable production typically, especially with a history of tobacco that we had in the state.
00:12:07
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:12:10
Jessica
I
00:12:12
Nathan Howell
But it is growing, definitely growing. We can all see that. and
00:12:16
Plant People
Chicken and the egg thing, which came first, the Vegetable Growers Association or like ah ah the Fruit and Vegetable Conference.
00:12:19
Nathan Howell
and Correct. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:12:25
Plant People
I know that's a big thing that they've been just integral. I mean, I don't I never thought about the history of that, but did one start the other? How did how did that work together way back in the day?
00:12:34
Nathan Howell
I do not know how it initially started, but I do know the Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association is older than the Fruit and Vegetable Conference itself. I do know that.
00:12:42
Plant People
Yeah.
00:12:43
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:12:43
Plant People
Yeah. i wasn't even for sure. I never thought about in those terms before, but yeah. Okay.
00:12:48
Nathan Howell
and And the way we're associated with the Fruit and Vegetable Conference, which is an annual gathering of all produce and fruit growers and
00:12:48
Jessica
Yeah.
00:12:59
Nathan Howell
Luckily now Cut Flowers and lot of organizations are coming on board to to be part of that conference. But we are a co-host of that conference. So we co co-host that with ah fruit growers every other year.
00:13:13
Nathan Howell
And man, there is I have been blessed to learn how many people it takes to make that conference paul possible. When I say Kentucky fit Vegetable Growers are are co-hosts, we're we're a small, small part of that.
00:13:28
Nathan Howell
You're talking about universities. You're talking about Department of Ag. It's amazing how many people come together to actually make that happen.
00:13:39
Plant People
It's the first conference I can even recall.
00:13:39
Alexis
Thank you.
00:13:42
Plant People
I've been extension for, as Brett says, quite a few decades. But, you know, that is the very one of the very first meetings. I think I came in in December and then it was the following year. That's when it was in Lexington at the old was at the Holiday Inn, Holodome.
00:13:56
Plant People
I forget which, because I remember I'd go to a session, play basketball in the holodome, and then go back to sessions.
00:13:57
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:14:03
Nathan Howell
Uh-huh.
00:14:03
Plant People
But, you know, it was one of the first meetings I went to an extension. I thought, wow, this is pretty comprehensive. And I thought that just all meetings and conferences were like that, but um ah not exactly. That was kind of a premier and still is a premier sort of annual conference that I know that I have local producers producers that, and myself, we just look forward to. It's pretty, and it's grown more comprehensive, as you said, over time. It was, you know, um focused on fruits and vegetables, but it's branched out into other things.
00:14:33
Plant People
And it's pretty cool to watch that evolve over time.
00:14:36
Jessica
Thank you.
00:14:37
Nathan Howell
It's getting a little bit more professional in it.
00:14:37
Plant People
It's pretty cool.
00:14:39
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:14:39
Plant People
ah It's always been very informative and fun.
00:14:40
Nathan Howell
But, but it's still, yeah.
00:14:42
Plant People
It's always been great.
00:14:43
Nathan Howell
And it, and it still, and it still covers. That's something I would really like to point out today. Our programming hopefully covers anybody from the backyard garden warrior.
00:14:57
Nathan Howell
to a commercial full-scale grower and everything in between.
00:14:59
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:15:03
Nathan Howell
That's what our organization really strives to do. a As we mentioned, the the the vegetable industry in the state of Kentucky is so diverse, not in size, but in spectrum of of production, items that they're producing.
00:15:20
Nathan Howell
So yeah, we try to to we actually try to cover or help assist cover all those topics, yeah.
00:15:20
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:27
Plant People
I think it really shows up in your participants too.
00:15:27
Jessica
Yeah.
00:15:29
Plant People
And something I've just noticed over, you know, throughout the years is it's one of the conferences that I go to that the age spectrum covers everything from 15-year-olds all the way up through to the opposite end of the spectrum, whatever the ceiling is there.
00:15:38
Nathan Howell
Yes. Yep. Yep.
00:15:44
Plant People
And not only that, but just some ah operators that I'd run into there that are very passionate and they grow in containers. Or some may be larger, they may have 20-acre fields, but it's so cool when I go there to see the breadth of like growers and people that are interested in the industry and, you know, growing things.
00:15:51
Nathan Howell
Correct.
00:16:00
Plant People
Pretty cool.
00:16:01
Nathan Howell
Yeah. And I think that's key too, as we move forward, as I talk to other, uh, other universities, other individuals outside of the state of Kentucky, that is very unique. And I think we take it for granted.
00:16:15
Plant People
Yeah, it's always been a cool aspect of that conference. And I just love the crowd. I love the, for lack of a better word, I love the vibe of it.
00:16:21
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:16:22
Jessica
Yeah.
00:16:22
Plant People
It's a pretty cool.
00:16:22
Nathan Howell
and And I think that it's
00:16:27
Nathan Howell
it is broad spectrum, but it is specific in its own ways and what it what it reaches.
00:16:31
Plant People
It is. Absolutely.
00:16:33
Nathan Howell
So it we're we're not trying to cover
00:16:33
Plant People
Oh,
00:16:36
Nathan Howell
we're not trying to cover turf and we're not trying to cover, you know, all the other aspects of horticulture. We're trying to keep it targeted on those productions, uh, primarily fruit and vegetable and cut flowers and, and viticulture and so forth.
00:16:44
Plant People
yeah.
00:16:45
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:16:47
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:49
Nathan Howell
But, uh, I think that target specific has allowed that conference to grow. And we're hearing that from folks out outside the state of Kentucky too, that,
00:17:01
Nathan Howell
even compared to their own conferences, for example. Just spoke the other day from folks from Tennessee in their Pick 10 conference. um And they were comparing the two. you know Both of them have great aspects and both of them probably have areas of that they need to improve. But their their target thing they were letting me know was they really enjoyed how specific ours was and how much leaving the conference, they felt they gained. you know they didn't They didn't have that that emptiness. They knew what they were coming for, and they got it, and they were able to take that back home.
00:17:41
Plant People
All the support materials and it's amazing.
00:17:42
Jessica
Yeah.
00:17:42
Brett
Yeah, we were we were lucky to be able to go out to to dinner with some of the Tennessee folks and and just hearing kind of because I had the opportunity, um left from Bowling Green and went down to to Nashville to speak at the Pick Tennessee Conference.
00:17:42
Alexis
Yeah.
00:17:43
Plant People
yeah Really cool.
00:17:54
Brett
And I was struck too by the difference there where, you know, the PICTN, it's sort of like our Kentucky proud. And so it's like all of these products, it's value added, it's meat, it's vegetables.
00:18:04
Brett
it's ah And there's something cool about that because you get, you know, a thousand people or 1200 people or whatever you show up, but the but the specificity and the targetedness, you know, both for the the information that's put out, but also for the, you mentioned the networking component of the fruit and but or the vegetable growers association.
00:18:20
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:18:21
Brett
i think those conferences when you have that slightly narrower focus, it allows for people to connect in those interest areas a little bit more easily rather than running it into a court person.
00:18:31
Brett
Every 10th person you see at a conference, it's like everybody here is a crazy plant person and we all love it.
00:18:36
Nathan Howell
You know you know what you're making. Yeah.
00:18:38
Brett
That's right.
00:18:38
Jessica
Yeah.
00:18:39
Brett
That's right. Well, I think, you know, the conference stuff is, is one, one piece for sure of, you know, how we think about these organizations and when we see them and definitely been a demarcator every January for me for the last ah number of years, but, There's a bunch of other stuff that the Vegetable Growers Association has been working on too, independent of that.
Advocacy and CAPE Funds for Small Producers
00:18:58
Brett
And you mentioned tobacco. And for those who know me, it won't this won't be a long winded thing, but there's this thing you have to understand in Kentucky that when the tobacco master settlement agreement happened, there was this money that came to the state. The state decided a significant portion of that funding was going to go toward agriculture.
00:19:16
Brett
But then you have to decide what you're going to do with it. So some portion goes to the states through a thing we're going to call CAPE here in a minute, County Ag Improvement Program. And then the rest of it kind of goes through this this board. So if you're this ah ag development board. So if you're not familiar with those things, if we say ag development board, we're talking about money that came to the state of Kentucky from that agreement and they had to be allocated. And and I think one of the things that you mentioned that the vegetable growers have been working on a little bit is making some adjustments or restorations maybe to how some of those funds are allocated for produce growers.
00:19:51
Brett
This is an example of a benefit for for those interested in joining VGA. Like if you're joining them, these these are folks fighting for this kind of stuff.
00:19:57
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:19:58
Brett
Can you tell us about that?
00:20:00
Nathan Howell
Yeah, yeah. One thing that it was actually brought up from one of our members that or was at their county meeting, as you mentioned, the these CAPE monies are allocated per county.
00:20:12
Nathan Howell
ah And they were at their meeting and they noticed that... Well, back up a little bit. So under CAPE, there's 11 investment areas that that the board directs those fundings through.
00:20:27
Nathan Howell
and commercial horticulture falls under what is called a ag diversification so that would be under ag diversification follows the commercial horticulture that people can apply for within their county so if they want to say a plastic laying machine or greenhouse structure that's that's what they would apply under so this individual brought it to our attention that under that commercial horticulture production practice There is ah eligible cost share items that individuals can apply for.
00:21:02
Nathan Howell
And there's a percentage. And a lot of those under that in 2025 had gotten reduced drastically all the way down to the 25% level.
00:21:14
Nathan Howell
Basically, it's usually 50% match is what most of those eligible items fall under.
00:21:14
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:21:21
Nathan Howell
And some of them, if the board wants you or it wants to encourage the producer to invest in those, so they might bump it up to 75. But a lot of the commercial horticulture ones had gotten bumped down to 25.
00:21:35
Nathan Howell
So
00:21:39
Nathan Howell
when that was brought to our attention, of course, we started asking questions, you know, why and and how can we get this re-corrected? Cause we felt that it was a especially a hardship.
00:21:50
Nathan Howell
It might not be a hardship on that producer that is established.
00:21:55
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:21:55
Nathan Howell
I was going to invest quite a bit of dollars in a piece of equipment to start with. And that 25% match was no problem, you know, no issue for them.
00:22:07
Nathan Howell
But the issue for me, it wasn't that many decades. We're talking about decades ago when I needed, that investment, you know, I needed that 50% match and I needed the ag development board to allow me to use my, plant production costs. So that was one, for example, that really hit me at home. Cause I utilized it a lot.
00:22:30
Nathan Howell
I, I, most producers are going to have their cost of plants, uh, you know, in some form where the transplants seed, et cetera, they're going to have that in an initial cost.
00:22:42
Nathan Howell
But that had been cut back to 25%. So I lost 25% of what I can match if that makes sense. So if I was going to buy a piece of equipment that cost $1,000, I lost $250 that I can match with that right off the top.
00:22:59
Nathan Howell
And as a small producer getting started, I can tell you, I can remember that was that was important to me and it really helped me.
00:23:05
Jessica
Yeah, for sure.
00:23:07
Nathan Howell
So, uh, we fought to get those, we didn't fight. We said it wasn't a fight and we just, we just suggested that, yeah, it wasn't.
00:23:15
Plant People
Educational process.
00:23:15
Alexis
Advocated for.
00:23:16
Jessica
Yeah.
00:23:16
Plant People
Advocate Yeah, there you go.
00:23:18
Nathan Howell
Yeah. We suggested that, uh, we would like to see them, uh, go back to their original 50% at least and, and encourage that 75% match on some of the, some of the larger items. Maybe the board wanted producers to invest in, for example, coolers and things of that nature.
00:23:37
Nathan Howell
but not to penalize the small beginning producer that's trying to get started that needs that match of of plants and seeds and so forth. That was highly received by the board, by the Kentucky Ag Development Fund Board, and got to talk to a lot of them personally about it and how it impacted the industry.
00:24:00
Nathan Howell
And with the help of the Kentucky Hort Council, we were able to get that in front of them and got that reversed. So yeah, felt very blessed to be able to do that, especially for the smaller growers in the state. Yeah.
00:24:14
Plant People
I was going to say, you you you know, even, well, not before you started farming, but I know you worked a lot professionally when you were working outside of the farm. You worked on that.
00:24:24
Plant People
So you have a really interesting history of working with producers at the very beginning of the master settlement and this drive in Kentucky. that at the time was there's so much tobacco in the state and it made the state agriculture look a certain way.
00:24:40
Plant People
It made small farms in Kentucky look a certain way, but you were part of that process of bringing the idea of diversification and going into other areas um in the state, weren't you?
00:24:50
Plant People
You worked a lot in there years ago.
00:24:53
Nathan Howell
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I initially got, I guess I got my feet wet in the vegetable production industry with my first position out of college, actually.
00:25:05
Nathan Howell
I was one of the the initial, what they call the extension associates at that time.
00:25:10
Plant People
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:25:11
Jessica
you
00:25:11
Nathan Howell
And our job was to be kind of a liaison between the specialists at the university at that time and the county agents and helping and this new industry that was trying to get developed, to helping tobacco producers at that time transition into smaller and larger scale commercial vegetable production.
00:25:34
Plant People
yeah
00:25:34
Nathan Howell
Primarily around the, at that time, it was around co-ops that were strategically planted throughout the state and i was uh stationed in the old mammoth cave region there around green river produce but yeah again trying to help those farmers transition and and make make that adjustment and it was it was a learning curve yeah you know for me for the producers for the industry at all yeah and to look back at
00:25:38
Plant People
and
00:26:02
Plant People
For you, for them, I was going to say both or, yeah. Yeah.
00:26:10
Nathan Howell
where we have come from in the last 25 years. I mean, there's been so many great organizations that have come along. Some of those, majority of those co-ops aren't there any anymore, but that's not to say those producers and the next generation actually by now of producers.
00:26:28
Nathan Howell
I can fully say that's where I came from. So I was in that position for 12 years, decided to step back and try to practice what I was trying to teach and try to be a model outside the educational realm of it and be a living model of it is is what we were trying to do at that time.
00:26:31
Plant People
Yeah. I'm
00:26:51
Nathan Howell
Plus raise my family, you know, on on on a farm too.
00:26:55
Plant People
sure that was a big step. Yeah.
00:26:57
Nathan Howell
It was scary, but yeah, we've we've been blessed many, many times over.
00:26:58
Plant People
hey Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:59
Jessica
Thank you.
00:27:01
Nathan Howell
yeah
00:27:01
Plant People
Yeah, so I talked to a lot of people at Fruit Vegetable Conference. It has, ah you know, a story that echoes a little bit of that to where they're trying to figure out, you know, they're a small grower and they've had good successes and they're, you know, just wrangling in their mind with how to, what do they do to take that
The Role of Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference
00:27:17
Plant People
next step.
00:27:17
Plant People
And i and it seems like that conference is so perfect for people like that because, you know, they go to the different sessions and and talk with people like yourself if they're lucky to to get a hold of someone like you that, you know, maybe can provide some insight, that next step kind of stuff.
00:27:29
Nathan Howell
And I think another thing about the conference too, that you know we've we've talked about the production side of it, but man, those support things a producer needs beyond just production can be found at that conference too.
00:27:44
Nathan Howell
Anything from economics to mental support to you know physical, everything in between. So yeah, it takes it all, it really does.
00:27:56
Plant People
really a neat Really a neat conference. a Great history there. Really good history.
00:28:00
Jessica
You mentioned like...
00:28:01
Alexis
Nathan, how would you, go ahead, Jessica.
00:28:03
Jessica
and ah you go I was just going to say, you've mentioned some of the things about benefits of how the Kentucky Vegetable Grows Association, you know, what they can do.
00:28:13
Jessica
But if you are like, not necessarily your soapbox, but if somebody is like, hey, I think I might want to join, what do I, you know, just for your average market grower or somebody, um you know, that you're going to represent them for some of these other, you know, doing like ag development boards and things like that.
00:28:21
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:28:28
Jessica
But what, what do they kind of get out of that by joining ah association?
00:28:31
Nathan Howell
Yeah. Some, some things outside of just the support. One thing that we've just signed on to, we've actually partnered and I want to make sure I get it right here for you. So I've got some cheap notes here.
00:28:43
Nathan Howell
We just partnered with the American income life insurance company.
00:28:47
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:28:47
Nathan Howell
So if you become a member of the Kentucky Vegetable Growers, and unfortunately, we are working on this, but um unfortunately, the about the only way you can right now is tied with registration for the Fruit and Vegetable Conference.
00:29:04
Nathan Howell
So those two things are kind of tied together, and that's where we get our membership, unfortunately. We're we're working in the process of where we can do that any time of the year, where you've if you want to become a member today, you should be able to become a member today right without loopholes.
00:29:19
Nathan Howell
without any loopholes But yeah, we're working on that. But benefits, say you signed up and are a member today. You have actually once you sign on, no questions asked, you get a twenty five hundred dollar accidental death and dismember benefit.
00:29:39
Nathan Howell
And that's to any member. So, for example, my wife is a member. I'm a member and two of my kids are are members of the association. So we all have that benefit from and You individually get to sign on your beneficiary of that from day one.
00:29:56
Nathan Howell
So that is a given. Then this ah American income will reach out to our membership with a postcard. And it's not that you're not going to get drilled every day with it. But one time a year, you'll get a postcard.
00:30:12
Nathan Howell
If you respond back to that postcard, they will reach out with uh they have i call them life assistance kits is what they are i mean i need to be doing this one i'm going to try to take advantage of it uh they have a wheel kit so they can help you know i'll tell you when i became a farmer uh joined the farmer club it's one of the things we probably least think about as farmers you know uh because there's always tomorrow to do it, right? And there might not be tomorrow. So that's one thing that I'm excited about. There's a will kit that they can actually not just give you, they have assistance and guide you along with it.
00:30:52
Nathan Howell
One benefit that actually has been used by members in the past is a health service discount program. And that has discounts, everything from dental to chiropractic care, vision care,
00:31:06
Nathan Howell
It even has a pet pharmacy care discounts that we can use. So, yeah. and And another part of that particular program is a a child safety kit and elderly safety kit. I was talking with the representative.
00:31:20
Nathan Howell
So it it is of a do-at-home kind of kit where you take the fingerprints of your kid or elderly member of the family and photos. And you have that, you know, if you need it on. And hopefully we never need that, but something that is is offered by them.
00:31:37
Nathan Howell
So just a few of the small outside the norm of what you would consider, ah think of membership of Kentucky vegetable growers being.
00:31:46
Jessica
you
00:31:47
Brett
That's so cool. And how how much does it cost to join?
00:31:50
Nathan Howell
It is $40 for membership fee, $80 to attend the conference, and $100 if you're like me and pay late.
00:31:59
Jessica
ah
00:31:59
Brett
ah So $40 to join the association.
00:31:59
Plant People
sir
00:31:59
Nathan Howell
It is the cheapest chiefest conference and cheapest membership that you could possibly get.
00:32:05
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:32:06
Brett
That's amazing.
00:32:06
Nathan Howell
We try, and I have sat on the the board long enough to know that when we say nonprofit, we try to be a nonprofit, right?
00:32:07
Brett
I mean, that is absolutely amazing.
00:32:17
Nathan Howell
We try to get it as, and that is help, grateful help from the Kentucky Hort Council. because they are actually the ones that would pay a percentage to manage the conference, in essence, is is the way it works. So at a cut of sales and income, they manage the conference for the Kentucky vegetable growers and the fruit growers.
00:32:46
Nathan Howell
But we want to reinvest profits if there are any. And in the past, there has not been some. I'll i'll be honest with you.
00:32:53
Alexis
Thank
00:32:54
Nathan Howell
It's been that close. But this year we were very fortunate and were able to have a good income supply from from the conference. And we're going to try to definitely reinvest that back into keynote speakers, guest speakers, anything that we can do to make that conference a success for the participants.
00:33:17
Brett
but I think one of the benefits too that you know we've we've talked about it and it's one of the things that I think people throw up as a general, you know this is why you should join an association is because it allows for the the organization of voices into a centralized voice.
00:33:33
Brett
And I think sometimes organizations say that and really nobody has time, so it doesn't end up happening. But I think, you know, in combination with what you're talking about with the Cape conversation, um another example of that, I think that's really a high value proposition for having an organized voice and being able to participate in an organization that can then go and speak, not just for one person, but for for lots of folks.
00:33:55
Brett
Is this some of this ah conversation you've been having with the Hort Council and Farm Bureau, I think, to talk about some sales tax issues with protected ag.
00:34:06
Brett
what Can you talk a little bit about, this is just another example of like, it's not it's not life insurance, but it's a huge benefit to have people who can who can speak about this stuff and push for these things.
00:34:11
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:34:17
Nathan Howell
Yeah, I'm looking at my note for the exact bill that I can't recall, but the issue that you're referring to actually was brought up by another member. So that's how, I mean, we're grassroots organization, right? So we have a member in the community that has an issue, they address it with us and we try to resolve it or or address it the best we can.
00:34:37
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:34:39
Nathan Howell
So this individual was purchasing some greenhouse supplies. And in the past, most greenhouse supplies, plastic, frames, fans,
00:34:52
Nathan Howell
things of that nature that would go with protective ag, uh, for horticultural purposes, whether it be cut flowers, vegetable production inside a tunnel, uh, et cetera, uh, have usually been sales tax exempt in the past.
00:35:07
Jessica
you
00:35:08
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:35:08
Nathan Howell
And county has fallen under a, I guess better lack of term, a gray area within, within that, uh, section ah of the bill. But, uh,
00:35:21
Nathan Howell
Vendors over, especially in Western Kentucky, that are larger suppliers of of these types of industrial needs, were issued from the Kentucky Revenue Department letters stating that it was mandatory that as of August of last year, they started initiating sales tax again on those greenhouse supplies.
00:35:48
Nathan Howell
So that gray area got black and white real quick.
00:35:52
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:35:52
Nathan Howell
So what we're trying to do, we're trying to work with folks at Kentucky Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Hort Council, local legislators,
00:36:04
Nathan Howell
probably not in this session, but hopefully next session we will get that resolved. it It has been brought to a lot of legislators' awareness.
00:36:16
Nathan Howell
and it has actually hit home with them because some of their family members ah have been hit with this issue.
00:36:24
Nathan Howell
So the passing on And for your listeners that might not know, might not be a farm listener, typically in the state of Kentucky, most, uh, items that are associated with production ag are farm exempt.
00:36:39
Nathan Howell
So I should have probably started there.
00:36:39
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:36:41
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:36:41
Nathan Howell
Uh, so if I go out and buy say a tractor, uh, that sales tax on that is, is farm exempt. If I'm using that particular equipment for production.
00:36:55
Nathan Howell
And we felt, we feel the same should be done for greenhouse structures in the state of Kentucky, especially as they're being used for horticultural type production.
00:37:06
Alexis
Yeah, and like, what are they using it for, if not for farming purposes? You know what i mean? Like, i it feels like that's such a small amount of people.
00:37:12
Nathan Howell
huh. Yeah. Uh, I can, I can see maybe if they're arguing, if somebody has a recreational greenhouse, maybe in their backyard, but
00:37:19
Alexis
yeah. yeah
00:37:22
Nathan Howell
I mean, people have recreational tractors and ATVs and stuff that are tracking up too.
00:37:26
Plant People
Yeah, dude, good point.
00:37:26
Alexis
Yeah. And don't you, aren't you supposed to provide your, like your, your farm tax exempt number like that, you know, to those folks anyway.
00:37:27
Brett
And recreational farms.
00:37:29
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:29
Nathan Howell
So, yeah.
00:37:30
Jessica
Yes.
00:37:33
Nathan Howell
Yes, you have.
00:37:35
Alexis
So like that would bypass any of your backyard.
00:37:37
Nathan Howell
Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. Even though you have that that, and I was actually hit with this personally myself because I i gave the gentleman my farmer taxes in number that is issued by the Kentucky Department Revenue.
00:37:50
Nathan Howell
And he informed me that yes, I would be paying sales tax on a greenhouse structure. And those are getting pretty pricey now.
00:37:56
Alexis
Wild.
00:37:58
Nathan Howell
Back in the beginning, they weren't that pricey, but you can invest a lot of dollars in structure now.
00:37:58
Alexis
Yeah.
00:37:58
Brett
Wow.
00:37:59
Plant People
Yeah.
00:38:01
Alexis
That tax adds up.
00:38:03
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:38:05
Nathan Howell
So yeah, that that is one item that is highly on our radar and that we're trying to hopefully get that gray area in the writing. It's such gray area, to be honest with you.
00:38:17
Nathan Howell
It reads like if I had chickens, in that structure, it would be tax exempt. So, yeah. So I might just turn some chickens loose in there and be at it.
00:38:29
Plant People
Might to do some pasture poultry, Nathan.
00:38:29
Alexis
Right, but like plants that feed people, it's not?
00:38:29
Jessica
yeah
00:38:29
Nathan Howell
But no, seriously, we do need get that resolved and get that gray area cleaned up.
00:38:31
Alexis
like
00:38:33
Plant People
They eat insects. You know, there you go.
00:38:35
Brett
This is such an interesting, that's an interesting moment for this to happen too, because we, you know, we were pulling some statistics.
00:38:35
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:38:41
Brett
We had our 25th anniversary with the Center for Crop Diversification last year, and we' were pulling some statistics about how things have changed and just that we estimated that the acreage under plastic, the you know, the acreage and high tunnels and and greenhouses is 27 times what it was 20 years ago in
The Importance of Accurate Crop Reporting
00:38:58
Brett
Kentucky.
00:38:58
Jessica
Oh.
00:38:59
Brett
that it's you know hundreds and hundreds of acres under plastic, which you know we talked about how horticulture operations, a small acreage can mean big labor. Talk about even more intense you know acreage is under under plastic and and trying to...
00:39:09
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:39:12
Brett
So the idea that, yeah, that's ah that's kind of a wild wild timing for that with all the NRCS high tunnels that have gone up and everything else.
00:39:18
Nathan Howell
Exactly.
00:39:19
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:39:19
Nathan Howell
That's what I was just getting ready to say. that It was a push. you know We saw a lot of that growth. because of the NRCS type programs. and And you've got those core hubs started in counties. Then you saw your little satellite folks come off that.
00:39:37
Nathan Howell
Yeah, now it seems like it might be a revenue source. But yeah, we're were that's an issue that we're we're addressing.
00:39:41
Plant People
This is
00:39:44
Plant People
This is a question kind of for Alexis, Brett, and you, Nathan, I guess, for you those numbers folks, but or for folks that work directly in the industry with producers. um I mean, how accurately does the published numbers on federal and state levels, I know, Brett, you guys have done work with this, but I i go to conferences, I see all the excitement, I see all the acres represented there.
00:40:06
Nathan Howell
Mm-hmm.
00:40:06
Plant People
And then I look at sometimes of the numbers and they seem like they don't match up, like they may be a little low, the official numbers, i mean, can you can any of you guys speak to that a little bit? I just have this feeling that there's ah there's a lot going on that's not always reflected.
00:40:20
Jessica
I know I have a survey that I need to fill out and send back to you.
00:40:23
Plant People
yeah ah Is this an omission, Jessica?
00:40:24
Jessica
That's currently in my desk.
00:40:26
Plant People
This is an omission of guilt.
00:40:27
Jessica
As we get on this topic, I have one.
00:40:27
Plant People
Yeah.
00:40:28
Alexis
So
00:40:28
Plant People
OK.
00:40:28
Brett
ooh This is a whole podcast topic.
00:40:28
Plant People
What survey are you talking about?
00:40:31
Nathan Howell
Yeah, i would I would love to address this because this is another push that Kentucky vegetable growers is trying to make aware, you know, the numbers are not.
00:40:43
Nathan Howell
the numbers. So for example, i was in a meeting the other day and we looked at some in our FSA office, Farm Service Agency numbers, where crop acreage is reported. in And i think the state of Kentucky has total maybe one acre of carrot production.
00:41:03
Nathan Howell
and And that's right here in my backyard, guys. You know, we're right here in this window back here is is that much carrots.
00:41:08
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:12
Nathan Howell
And if you look at the stats, it looks like the state of Kentucky only produces watermelon and pumpkins. And we have so much more to offer than that.
00:41:25
Nathan Howell
And the key to it that I want listeners to understand and I understand is it's not fun going into the Farm Service Agency. and reporting your 10th of an acre of carrots or your 10th of acre of radish.
00:41:40
Nathan Howell
And you're thinking it's not that important, but it really is. Because when you add that across the state of Kentucky, it's very important.
00:41:46
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:50
Nathan Howell
Those numbers can drastically increase from what they are. and And the key to that is when federal programming looks at the state of Kentucky and there's X amount of of vegetables there, it doesn't look like we were a vegetable state and we are now we just you know we talked about that transition from tobacco to vegetable production and and and we are.
00:42:16
Nathan Howell
a But the only way we're going to get those federal dollars. trickle down to us is if they can actually see what we are. You know, they can't guess and and assume what we are or take our word for it, to be honest you.
00:42:31
Nathan Howell
It has to be reported. and And for the listeners, it's not really that hard. It is a little time consuming, but reach out to your farm service agency. That would be where you initially start.
00:42:44
Nathan Howell
If you do not have a farm number, they can issue a farm number. And again, that's five acres if you're talking about horticulture. So if you have five acres and want to report what you're doing, you can.
00:43:00
Nathan Howell
The deadline on lot of reporting for those crops is July the 15th of each year. And you guys know as well as I know and as well as the listeners know,
00:43:13
Nathan Howell
A lot of times we're planting stuff way past that. You know, we're planting August, September, the rest of the month.
00:43:16
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:43:18
Nathan Howell
We plant something every every month of the year. But you have 15 days after that plant date to report that. So if you plant something after July the 15th, you have 15 days to report that.
00:43:32
Nathan Howell
So what you need, you simply need the crop. You need the number of acreage. And as I said, I don't have an acre, hardly of any one crop.
00:43:43
Nathan Howell
but you add them all together, you know, there's there's quite a few, and you add that three times in the year, that's even more.
00:43:43
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:43:49
Nathan Howell
a So if if you had trouble converting that small square footage into acreage, folks at the FSA office would be glad to help you. They help me all the time do it, even on some areas.
00:44:03
Nathan Howell
They will provide you with a map of your farm. You just have to note notarize where each crop is. And also whether you use irrigation practices. And those are the basic things that you need.
00:44:16
Nathan Howell
And that will help us drastically in the state of Kentucky and the vegetable growers association, be able to utilize those numbers to chase federal dollars and chase and have those federal dollars chase state dollars.
00:44:32
Nathan Howell
If that makes sense. So the state needs those numbers just as drastically ah as we do as an individual.
00:44:39
Plant People
So, Jessica, get that report filled.
00:44:40
Alexis
Nathan,
00:44:43
Nathan Howell
do well
00:44:43
Jessica
I know.
00:44:43
Alexis
get your paperwork in.
00:44:43
Plant People
Not not to throw rocks.
00:44:44
Brett
Yeah.
00:44:44
Nathan Howell
I just got mine in too.
00:44:44
Alexis
Nathan, are those always...
00:44:45
Jessica
i have
00:44:45
Plant People
Sorry, Jessica.
00:44:46
Nathan Howell
I had to follow Ashley late for you to get mine in, so I can't.
00:44:46
Plant People
Sorry.
00:44:49
Nathan Howell
This is like, yeah.
00:44:50
Alexis
Are those... Is that paperwork usually mailed?
00:44:52
Nathan Howell
Do as I say, not as I do always sometimes, I guess.
00:44:54
Plant People
Yeah, there you go.
00:44:55
Nathan Howell
okay
00:44:55
Alexis
Yeah.
00:44:56
Nathan Howell
But I did get them in.
00:44:59
Alexis
Is that paperwork usually mailed, Nathan? Or is the grower responsible for going to the FSA office to like ask for the paperwork to fill out?
00:45:06
Nathan Howell
the uhuh Typically in the past, it is actual physically going into your, your local office. Now the FSA structure is changing as most things in the world today.
00:45:16
Alexis
Hmm.
00:45:21
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:45:22
Nathan Howell
And I see in the near future, most of that du being done electronically and approved outside the office.
00:45:29
Jessica
you
00:45:30
Nathan Howell
So you could do it probably from home in the future right now. I don't think it's to that point. I don't believe, uh, but it is definitely heading that way.
00:45:40
Brett
Yeah, to to put a little, just ah some ah maybe some examples on kind of what Nathan's talking about here with the importance of reporting these is that, so let's say, for instance, you grow a tenth of an acre of carrots and you have other neighbors who, other folks you know who grow a tenth, you know, and there's hundreds of you all who are growing a tenth of an acre. And so overall, there's dozens, if not hundreds of acres of carrots across the state of Kentucky, but no one has a single whole acre.
00:46:06
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:46:06
Brett
And now let's say none of you all report. Well, it looks like there's no there's no carrots in Kentucky. If all of you report, we see that there's hundreds of acres in Kentucky. So that's step one.
00:46:17
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:46:17
Brett
Step two is, let's say some novel worm is introduced from something from Southeast Asia, who knows from where, and it's affecting all of our carrot crops.
00:46:29
Brett
And the federal government takes note of this and they see, okay, we need to do things to help to solve problems related to this new carrot worm that's coming in and destroying carrot crops. And then what they're going to do is they're going to look, where are all the carrots grown?
00:46:45
Brett
And then they're going to allocate money to support eradication efforts, research efforts, discovery, etc., based on where those things are.
00:46:46
Jessica
Thank you.
00:46:53
Brett
And so if we don't if we look like we don't have any carrots, they're not going to send any money our way. the The specialty crop block grant, which is a program that lots of producers have used, ah universities have used, the ah growers associations have used, they are literally divvied up according to how much specialty crop production you have on paper, according to the federal government.
00:46:59
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:47:14
Nathan Howell
Mm-hmm. Yes.
00:47:16
Brett
And so you can imagine the state of California's amount of money that they get for specialty crop block grain is a lot bigger than the state of Kentucky. But the the portion of the pie that we're getting could be even bigger.
00:47:27
Brett
And so this is not, you know, just just straight up, you know, federal bureaucratic money that's, you know, paid to some administrator somewhere. It's money that's actually coming to do really important work either by producers or by university folks or by nonprofit folks.
00:47:42
Brett
And so that's the type of thing, because with these big complex systems. And the only way to explain to them how important you are is to sort of speak a little bit in their terms.
00:47:53
Brett
And so I think the reporting of the FSA stuff is this, that's the mechanism that we have for saying, Hey, we're here, we're here and we need support.
00:47:59
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:48:03
Brett
I think, you know, the other piece that I would say, you know, ah like for instance, the corn growers or the the soybean growers, they don't necessarily have this problem. And it's because, and ah you know I'm not gonna go too far down this rabbit hole, but because they have to report to FSA in order to access some of the benefits that those organizations or those those crop groups get, things like the insurance programs and the other things. And there are insurance programs available for specialty crop growers, but it's kind of a back to the chicken and the egg thing.
00:48:35
Brett
We don't necessarily have great programs if we don't say that we're here. And if we don't say that we're here, we're never going to get good programs. And so it's this kind of back and forth. And the unfortunately or fortunately, the simplest thing you can do is go and and report that information, which is exactly what, especially in a state like Kentucky, where we aren't going to have a single person growing 800 acres of tomatoes, um we need to really stick together in both in the advocacy work that you're talking about, but also in terms of the ah the the showing that we're here and showing up together in the really boring way of reporting to an FSA office.
Reporting Scale in Agriculture Production
00:49:14
Nathan Howell
Yeah, and if you think about it, not too many years ago, that's truly what tobacco was.
00:49:22
Plant People
Yeah.
00:49:22
Nathan Howell
You know, there were there were very few folks when I grew tobacco, if you grew five acres of tobacco in my region, which was the burly heart of of Kentucky at that time, you were a big, humongous grower, right?
00:49:22
Alexis
um
00:49:23
Plant People
was
00:49:38
Nathan Howell
I grew up raising two acres, and I leased some tobacco in from my grandparents, but
00:49:38
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:49:43
Nathan Howell
You know, you're talking small scale production. But when when you looked at those numbers across the state, Kentucky was barely tobacco producing state, you know, so saying we can get there with some produce, I believe.
00:49:56
Plant People
It's such a much matter of scale. Yeah.
00:50:00
Plant People
It's ah interesting. You talk to row crop soybean and corn farmers. You know, even back in the day, Burley acreage was small because you're not talking about a thousand acre field. You're not talking about 500 acre field in Burley. You were depending on which area of the state, five, 10 acres. That was huge. But then if you were a tobacco farmer thinking about going into vegetables, you're talking about a much smaller scale than that. So I've always thought it was an issue of scale and conspicuency.
00:50:23
Plant People
You know, you if you can't see just a big block of it. Or if you come from a certain background, like row crop background or tobacco farming, you think in terms of acre in terms of acres, and we talked about that earlier, it's just more about the intensity of production rather than the scale.
00:50:38
Plant People
So say it loud and proud if you have a tenth of an acre of carrots, folks.
00:50:42
Nathan Howell
yeah
00:50:43
Plant People
You know, sign up and and make that known because vegetable production is a different game on a different scale. And the revenue generated on small scales, you know, points to that fact too. So, you know, make make your numbers count.
00:50:56
Alexis
I'm not going to get us too off topic here, Nathan, but mostly I want to like lend my, ah lend a hand if I can as we move forward, but because I'm very frustrated by, it seems like there's a lot of ways that we can get growers to understand the importance and that it even exists. So for example, i have owned a farm for five years. i go into my FSA office at least twice a year to fill out paperwork. I have never once been asked to fill out that crop sheet, like to the acreage, you know what i mean?
00:51:26
Nathan Howell
Mm-hmm.
00:51:27
Plant People
<unk>
00:51:27
Alexis
And so it's like, number one, why isn't FSA telling me that knowing I'm a specialty crop producer? And number two, like, ah you know, i didn't, I didn't, so a lot of people don't know, right?
00:51:38
Alexis
And so like, how do we, how do we set up things? Do we have a whole like fill out session at Kentucky Fruit and Veg where people can come in everybody who's there is there for specialty crops, they all should qualify with a farm number.
00:51:51
Alexis
And you know, we have FSA there to help. And they fill it all out and do something. or you know, do we...
00:51:56
Brett
Filling that stuff out to me is like, it's like tantamount to voting. You know, it's like that we have all these rock the vote, get out the vote.
00:52:01
Alexis
Yeah.
00:52:02
Brett
But like in this context, as a grower, it's every bit as important as for voicing, you know.
00:52:03
Nathan Howell
Yep,
00:52:03
Alexis
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:52:07
Alexis
Yeah, understanding the importance.
00:52:08
Plant People
Rock the carrot.
00:52:10
Alexis
And then, you know, for example, we have Kentucky Proud. We have a lot of growers involved in Kentucky Proud and specialty crops. Could that not be a requirement of Kentucky Proud every year?
00:52:20
Alexis
We re you know we re-up our Kentucky Proud. Why shouldn't we be able to send in a copy of our paperwork that we filled out with FSA or acreage?
00:52:23
Nathan Howell
yep, yep, yep.
00:52:28
Alexis
You're just... i I know where this is not the podcast for that. Mostly I'm just wanting to say that like, I would love to help.
00:52:32
Nathan Howell
yeah
00:52:35
Alexis
We as CCD, obviously on the podcast can help get that information out, but there has to be a better way to to let growers know the importance as well as, you know, just how to
Encouraging Growth and Conference Participation
00:52:48
Alexis
do it.
00:52:48
Alexis
Yeah.
00:52:48
Nathan Howell
Yeah, correct. Yeah. The just, and I agree with you, I've been trying to think and think of how can the state of Kentucky give some form of incentive, you know, to a producer to do that, or as you said, maybe a requirement.
00:53:01
Alexis
Yeah. isn
00:53:07
Nathan Howell
if If they're part of this program, it's required that you report your acreage and those conversations have been floating around, uh,
00:53:09
Plant People
She's getting fired
00:53:15
Alexis
yeah
00:53:17
Nathan Howell
Yeah, I'm not for sure the best way to address it, but boy, I sure would like to be part of the discussion to take care you know come come up with something that would move forward.
00:53:25
Alexis
Yeah. ah Well, please reach out if we can ever be of assistance there. i am this This is one of those things that like really gets my gears grinding over here.
00:53:34
Nathan Howell
I can see. I can see. I like that.
00:53:35
Alexis
So i just I have a strong belief in in it and to not even have known as someone in this position and also someone who farms and as someone who goes into the FSA office more knowledgeable than the average farmer.
00:53:35
Nathan Howell
That's passion.
00:53:37
Plant People
getting fired up
00:53:48
Nathan Howell
Yes.
00:53:49
Alexis
I'm very upset that I'm just learning about this, you know?
00:53:51
Nathan Howell
Uh-huh.
00:53:52
Alexis
So
00:53:52
Plant People
Thank you.
00:53:52
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:53:52
Alexis
um I know there's a lot of people who probably also would be because they want that power to back up you know the great things that organizations like yours are are doing.
00:53:55
Jessica
Thank you.
00:54:02
Alexis
So um anyways, yeah.
00:54:02
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:54:04
Alexis
Okay. I'm off of my soapbox now. Thank you for listening.
00:54:07
Nathan Howell
Yeah. I appreciate the passion.
00:54:11
Alexis
there's one thing I can do, it's that. so
00:54:12
Nathan Howell
Yeah.
00:54:13
Jessica
yeah
00:54:14
Alexis
ah
00:54:15
Brett
Well, this has been great. um Do you have any any kind of closing thoughts or anything you want to leave folks with if they're curious about more about the vegetable growers association or um yeah, anything else you want to leave folks with?
00:54:27
Nathan Howell
Yeah, just would encourage folks to
00:54:33
Nathan Howell
to continue on continue the growth for sure. Like you said, a lot of folks are c so celebrating their 25th, you know, right now. And that's that wasn't by accident.
00:54:47
Nathan Howell
That was a plan 25 years ago to help us get to where we are now. And And all the listeners out there, you guys are part of the next 25, right? and And we can only do it together and moving forward.
00:55:01
Nathan Howell
I would encourage you, if you can, the Fruit and Vegetable Conference will be at the Sloan Convention Center again in Bowling Green. Mid-January dates. I don't have them exactly. I apologize. But usually around that January 11th time frame.
00:55:18
Nathan Howell
We'd love to see everybody out to that. And if you do need assistance for some reason, maybe you can't afford it or can't make it, reach out to us. We'll get you there. We've got scholarships. We've got hopefully help with some transportation.
00:55:33
Nathan Howell
I know some folks are, Bowling Green is not the easiest to get to for some people, but yeah, we'll try to help you out the best way we can.
00:55:35
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:55:41
Brett
I would echo as a, as a session planner and speaker from last year, if you have ideas that you want to see at that conference, you can reach out to the Hort culture team. You can reach out to Nathan and that'll be again, January 10, 11, and 12 in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
00:55:55
Jessica
you
00:55:57
Brett
Already already looking forward to it.
00:55:59
Nathan Howell
Yeah, he'll be here for your note.
00:55:59
Brett
um I know, I know it will.
00:56:01
Plant People
Yeah.
00:56:03
Brett
Well, thank you so much, Nathan. Alexis, you want to take us out?
00:56:08
Alexis
Sure. Yes. Thank you all for being with us today. We hope you've enjoyed it. If you have questions, please feel free to, you can reach out to us on the podcast. You can reach out to the Kentucky Vegetable Growers Association or the Kentucky Horticulture Council. If you've got just general questions, if you've got FSA questions, walk into your FSA office and ask them direct questions. Say, I want to fill out my acreage.
00:56:29
Alexis
Demand the paperwork. I'm sure they're happy to give that to you. But you can also follow us on social media at work culture podcast, and we'll post some resources up there for you guys and some stuff in the show notes. So yeah, reach out if you've got anything. And we are glad you are here with us today. And we hope you keep listening. Have a great one.
00:56:51
Jessica
Thank you.