FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 15, 2002
Contact: Kara Keeton, Communications Director
Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy
404 Ann Street, Frankfort
(502) 564-4627

Agricultural Development Board Presents $300,000 Check to Bath County Agricultural Education and Marketing Center

The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, chaired by Governor Paul Patton, will deliver a check in the amount of $300,000 in support of the Bath County Agricultural Education and Marketing Center at 9:00 a.m. on December 10th at the Country Kettle Restaurant in Owingsville. John-Mark Hack, Executive Director of the Agricultural Development Fund, Senator R.J. Palmer II and Representative Carolyn Belcher will be in attendance to present the grants funds to the Agricultural Extension Foundation, Inc.

The $300,000 of Agricultural Development Funds will go toward the farmer's market portion of the Bath County Agricultural Education and Marketing Center at the I-64/US-60 interchange in Owingsville. The Center will include a number of structures; a covered farmer's market with store front, certified commercial kitchen, meeting facilities and a light-processing unit. The new farmer's market will give local producers the opportunity to market their products directly to consumers. The Agricultural Extension Foundation, Inc. secured matching funds for this project through a $450,000 rural business enterprise grant from USDA Rural Development.

Kentucky has made a historic effort to diversify away from tobacco production while revitalizing the farm economy by investing 50% of Kentucky's Master Settlement Agreement into the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund. To date Kentucky has invested over $98 million to an array of county, regional, and state projects designed to increase net farm income and create sustainable new farm-based business enterprises. The Bath County Agricultural Education and Marketing Center represents just one of the over 800 projects that have been funded through Agricultural Development Fund, since the inception of the program in January 2001.

For more information regarding this project contact Gary Hamilton at the Bath County Extension Office or the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy at (502) 564-4627.

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