Joe Imel/Daily News Gov. Steve Beshear (center) speaks at the Kentucky Agriculture Developement Board meeting Friday at the Hilton Garden Inn. Richie Farmer, Sec. of Agriculture is at right and , Roger Thomas, of Warren County, Director of the Governor's Office of Agriculture Policy is left of Gov. Beshear.

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Gov. Steve Beshear and the Kentucky Agriculture Development Board renewed its support Friday of the “Kentucky Proud” marketing effort.

The board, while meeting in Bowling Green, approved $3.3 million in funding over the next two years to try to expand the program that now has 1,200 participants in 112 counties.

Beshear noted that a recent study conducted by the University of Kentucky commended the ag board on Kentucky Proud and other projects that it has funded.

The Kentucky Proud program - which labels and finds markets for agriculture products grown and finished in Kentucky - received the best rating by the consultant on the impact it was having on increasing farm income and diversification.

“I don’t know if you can get any better than that,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “This is something that I am very passionate about.”

Farmer said his office has seen the Kentucky Proud program find success on essentially a shoestring - just more than $5 million over several years.

Farmer said he has called in favors from basketball coaches Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith, as well as former teammates of his from the University of Kentucky basketball team, to get a big bang for his buck.

“We have been good stewards of this money and will be glad to continue to report to you about how we spend it,” Farmer said.

Farmer’s department had requested $6.15 million from the program, but Roger Thomas, a Smiths Grove resident in charge of the Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy, said the money simply wasn’t available, “so the funding has been kind of flatlined,” Thomas said.

Farmer said his request for additional funding was not “being greedy,” but because he wanted to make an even bigger push for the program that recently added Sav-A-Lot as a major vendor of Kentucky Proud products.

“It is a highly effective and worthwhile program ... one of the best I’ve seen,” said board member Scott Smith, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. “Unfortunately, we are not in a situation where we can invest more than we have.”

The money will be used to fund the position of a retail liaison and goods distribution coordinator, restaurant rewards, branding and advertising and other costs. Funding the first year is $1,675,000 and is reduced to $1,650,000 the second year.

“The best thing we can do is create markets for our farmers,” Farmer said.

Board member Mary Sias, president of Kentucky State University, said the Kentucky Proud label is tantamount to a Good Housekeeping seal, signaling the product is safe and can be trusted. Sias said she gets questions all the time from the public about the products that carry the labels.

Beshear, in speaking before the board and earlier to the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, said Kentucky’s agriculture industry can play an important role in the state’s economic health.

The governor encouraged the board to look at funding innovative projects, research and development of agriculture products, particularly those that could help in the production of energy.

The funding distributed by the ag board comes from the state’s portion of the Master Settlement Agreement from tobacco companies.

On Friday, the board also approved $5 million to be given to the Kentucky Agriculture Finance Corporation. Eighty percent of that will continue the corporation’s current loan programs to farmers, while $1 million will be used in the establishment of the Large Animal Veterinary program.

Thomas said that program will begin accepting applications after the first of the year for loans up to $100,000. The purpose is to encourage capital investment in large animal vet practices, of which there is a shortage across the state.

An item that garnered much conversation was funding for the Kentucky Agriculture Leadership Program operated by UK. The 18-month program seeks to offer intense training to the next generation of farmers, and the first such class saw 20 agriculturalists of diverse backgrounds.

The university asked for and received $150,000 to be matched with private funding of $150,000 to fund the next class, and $850,000 to start an endowment, also to be matched. If the matching fund is not reached, the grants will be revoked.

A few board members questioned if it was wise to put money in an endowment with the potential that UK would come back in two years and ask for more funding if the endowment was not yet growing.

But board member Sam Lawson of Bowling Green said investing in such an endowment is a good idea when funding is short.

“It’s a way to have an impact in perpetuity,” Lawson said. “What better legacy can we have than to invest in our future leaders?”

In the end, all but three board members approved the funding.

More than $1 million was approved to spend on 18 separate ag programs, none of which were in southcentral Kentucky.

The UK report, which Beshear mentioned, looked at the $209 million spent by the board from 2001 to 2007. It found, among numerous other items, that every $1 spent on many programs resulted in $1.87 of additional farm income being generated.

Investments in certain types of programs have involved more than 50,000 farmers, improved farm efficiency and doubled an $86 million in farm investments into $161 million.

Thomas told the board that he wants to generate more public knowledge about the ag development board and how it can help Kentucky’s agriculture industry. Staff members intend to have a plan for that effort next month.

— For more information about the Kentucky Agriculture Development Board and its programs, visit http://agpolicy.ky.gov.