Alliance Director Knox van Nagell's responds to the question "With the future of a $5 billion agriculture industry at stake, what needs to be done to keep it sustainable?" | Photo by Dave Traxler
Lexington can have both farms AND factories. | Farm photo by Jeff Rogers; Factory photo by Lexington Herald-Leader Staff
Fayette Alliance Board Member Todd Clark writes about the continued use and need of Fayette County farmland. | Photo by Jeff Rogers | www.jeffrogers.com
Fayette County agriculture and agritourism have a $3 billion impact on the regional economy. If protected and advanced, they will play a vital role in both community and economic development.
The equine industry is one of the largest industries in Central Kentucky, contributing billions of dollars to Kentucky’s economy each year. The horse industry contributes $3.5 billion to our state’s economy. This signature industry is responsible for 96,000 jobs in the state, and more than 194,000 Kentuckians are involved in the business as horse owners,...
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Fayette County is not only famous for its horses, but also its livestock. Kentucky is the 8th largest cattle-producing state in the US. In our state 38,000 beef farmers raise approximately 2.2 million head of cattle, making it the largest cattle-producing state East of the Mississippi River. In addition to cattle raised for beef, Kentucky...
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Agriculture in Fayette County isn’t just horses, livestock, and crops… it’s also about tourism. In 2010 according to the USDA, Fayette County had farm sales of $504.1 million and was ranked the number one agricultural county in Kentucky. Fayette (one of 120 counties in Kentucky) achieved 10.4% of all agricultural farm sales in the state.[1]...
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Although row crops are one of the smaller agricultural industries in Fayette County, they are still vital to Lexington’s farm economy. There are 46.5 square miles of harvested cropland in Fayette Co. accounting for 16.45% of the county. In 2008, crop receipts in Fayette County totaled $14.4 million, a significant number coming from such a...
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Despite the economic, environmental, and cultural significance of our precious Fayette County farmland…we are losing it at an alarming rate. In 2005 the Inner Bluegrass Region, including Fayette County, was placed on the World Monuments Fund’s list of one of the one hundred most endangered cultural landscapes in the world…because of our alarming loss of...
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Since it’s inception, The Fayette Alliance has strongly supported the efforts of LFUCG Purchase of Development Right program. View the Alliance’s Position Statements for Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010. We congratulate the PDR program on a job well done in preserving our irreplaceable Bluegrass landscape. Preservation recognition Excerpt from www.Kentucky.com, Opinion Editorial, posted...
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