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Kentucky Beef Producers Participate in ‘Farm to Table’ Program

John Comloquoy [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Kentucky beef producers are participating in a new program this spring aimed at putting local meat in local groceries.

The ‘farm to table’ effort launched in mid March.

Dave Maples is with the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association. He said this kind of local program has been talked about for 20 years.

“When Kroger came to us, we kind of got on the ball,” said Maples, “And Kroger said we don’t want to have to deal with a hundred farmers, or 20 farmers, you all know who they are. Get a company for them, and get a product to us and then we’ll put it on a shelf and sell it.”

Maples said the program includes a meat processing plant in Wolfe County and a packaging facility in Louisville. He said most of Kentucky’s 38,000 producers are part-time farmers with other jobs off the farm.

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
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