FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, December 6, 2007

For more information contact:
Bill Clary

(502) 564-4696

COMMISSIONER FARMER OUTLINES LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

TO IMPROVE ALL KENTUCKIANS’ QUALITY OF LIFE

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer laid out an ambitious legislative agenda to improve the lives of all Kentuckians in a speech at the 88th Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting today in Louisville.

Commissioner Farmer will seek action from the 2008 General Assembly to expand the successful Kentucky Proud farm marketing program, develop a program for on-farm water retention, fully fund the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s consumer and environmental protection services, address health care, and take other actions to enhance every Kentuckian’s quality of life. Commissioner Farmer pledged to work with Governor-elect Steve Beshear and legislators of every political stripe to move Kentucky forward.

“I look forward to working with Governor-elect Beshear on the issues facing Kentucky,” Commissioner Farmer said. “My executive team has already had a number of fruitful discussions with his transition team, and I look forward to the next four years with optimism, because agriculture is not a partisan issue.”

Commissioner Farmer will ask the General Assembly to expand the Kentucky Proud program, which helps Kentucky farmers and food producers find markets for their products. Kentucky Proud generated $39 million in retail sales in 2006, and that figure is expected to exceed $80 million in 2007. “And I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface yet,” Commissioner Farmer said.

On-farm water retention is needed for farmers who grow specialty crops as an alternative to tobacco, Commissioner Farmer said. “If our efforts to diversify Kentucky agriculture are to fully pay off, we must help farmers maintain an adequate supply of water on the farm year-round,” he said.

Budget cuts in the KDA’s consumer and environmental protection divisions have left them almost to the breaking point, Commissioner Farmer said in calling for full funding of the Department. “I’ve said we’re doing an adequate job,” he said. “But adequate isn’t good enough when it comes to protecting the pocketbooks, safety and health of Kentucky.”

Commissioner Farmer called on all Kentuckians to take on the issue of access to health care. An all-star task force Commissioner Farmer assembled last summer is scheduled to submit recommendations on health care by the end of the year.

“We’ve fussed and talked about this issue for years,” Commissioner Farmer said. “Now is the time to act.”

Commissioner Farmer said he also would seek legislative action to:

• continue to appropriate half of Kentucky’s tobacco settlement funds to agriculture;
• support the Commonwealth’s renewable energy industries;
• double funding for the KDA’s county fair improvement program, which helps county fairs all over Kentucky improve their fairgrounds facilities;
• enact the strategic plan being developed by the Task Force for the Future of Agriculture;
• maintain the cap on property tax increases at 4 percent a year; and
• keep 22.2 percent of Kentucky motor fuel taxes going to rural roads.

“I’ve said this before, and I really believe it: There is far more that unites Kentuckians than divides us,” Commissioner Farmer concluded. ”We share our love of family, our nation and the freedoms that we enjoy. We all want a better future for our children. And if we keep this in mind, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish together.”

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