Senate committee unanimously approves framework to spend $5 million for agricultural economic development

Frankfort — The Kentucky Senate Agriculture Committee voted unanimously to advance Senate Bill 28, a measure that creates a framework for the Department of Agriculture to allocate $5,000,000 that the General Assembly included for agricultural economic development in the 2024 state budget.

The bill, described to the committee by Jonathan Shell, Kentucky commissioner of agriculture, would give the department a formal process and metrics to attract processing and further-processing businesses to Kentucky, with the stated goals of increasing local market opportunities for farmers, supporting rural job creation and raising prices paid to producers.

"First of all, I wanna say thank you so much for last year, putting in the budget, the $5,000,000 for ag economic development that we're working today on putting the framework around and the enabling legislation," Commissioner Jonathan Shell told the committee. He outlined why the department is prioritizing processors and end-users: "In 1996, our cash receipts in the…