Eddie Melton addressed Kentucky Farm Bureau (KFB) members this morning at the organization’s 105th Annual Meeting in Louisville. The Webster County farmer, who was elected as KFB President last December, delivered a year-end review and shared his thoughts about the past and future of the organization.

Melton began his remarks by thanking the KFB board for their support during his first year as President. “They do an outstanding job representing agriculture and setting the direction for our organization every day.”

The KFB President highlighted the Annual Meeting’s theme this year, “A Firm Foundation,” stating that the organization’s 100-plus year history is the solid foundation upon which he will continue to build. 

“I couldn't be more excited to help lead our organization forward,” he said. “What makes our organization what it is, is right here in this room – our volunteer leaders all across the state.”

Melton echoed what American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall shared during the previous day’s Commodity Luncheon, saying that county leaders are the lifeblood of KFB. “A county president serves as the leader and as the voice of Kentucky Farm Bureau in your county,” said Melton. “The work that you do … allows our voices to be heard on the local, the state, and the national level. And it helps us to have those discussions about agriculture and our rural way of life.”

From a policy perspective, Melton said the farm bill is “the one piece of legislation that's most important to us in the ag industry, and it's one that our farm families need. This bill ensures our farm families have tools to meet the demands of our production needs, our support programs, research and development initiatives and trade opportunities, just to name a few.”

Melton went on to reveal some startling census data, which underscores the challenges farmers today face.

“The data tells us that from 2017 to 2022, we lost 6,500 farmers in the state of Kentucky. In five years alone, during that same period, the USDA census said that we lost 500,000 acres of production farmland in Kentucky,” said Melton. “That's 100,000 acres every year. But the one thing that stood out to me the most when I saw those numbers — it's 274 acres every day in Kentucky that we lose of production farmland. The average farm size in Kentucky is 179 acres. That means we lose one-and-a-half farms every day. In my mind, that's not sustainable. Perhaps one of the most telling numbers that came out in that census is that farm production cost. It went up over 28% in that same timeframe.”

Despite this disturbing news, “One thing that can't be dampened is the human spirit,” Melton added. “Our farm families are so dedicated to their farming heritage, enabling active and next-generation farmers to carry on this historic tradition. It should be a priority for every one of us in the agriculture industry.”

Melton shared that this loss of land is why KFB launched the Kentucky Farmland Initiative (KFTI) earlier this year. He noted that KFTI now boasts a network of 26 partners who are committed to keeping Kentucky’s farmland in active production.

“There's no silver bullet that's going to cure this problem that we have of losing this farmland,” Melton cautioned. “We're going to have to take a shotgun approach. … I think this coming year we're going to see some real progress made” on this initiative.

Melton then encouraged the audience to participate in the afternoon’s policy-setting meetings.

“As a grassroots organization, you set the policy for this organization for this coming year,” he said. “Thank you very much for this year we’ve had, I appreciate you so much and I look forward to what we have ahead of us at Kentucky Farm Bureau.”