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The Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture
Honorable Mentions

The Jenkins Family, Kings Mountain, KY Lawrence "LB" Jenkins

The Jenkins family works together to raise a diverse plethora of commodities on two Kentucky farms. Led by Lawrence "LB" and Judie Jenkins, the extended family works in a unique partnership to raise organic vegetables on a former tobacco farm. Complementing the operation is an aquaculture enterprise - featuring hybrid striped bass and catfish - and sugar cane. On their second farm, they raise beef cattle, vegetables, pasture-based chickens and eggs. From this bounty, they process their own value-added products in a certified kitchen trailer and sell at the county farmers markets as well as through a statewide organic producers association that LB helped found.

To showcase some of their antiques, they developed an African American "living history" farm that displays, among other things, a horse-drawn sugar cane mill that makes sorghum molasses. At their farm, which draws an equal number of farmers and tourists, and at festivals and meetings, the family promotes small-scale sustainable farming. LB is a regular presenter at Kentucky State University's Small Farm Field Days, which are partly funded through a SARE professional development grant.

"LB was instrumental in developing the Organic Kentucky Producers Association, which direct markets vegetables and eggs over a 70-mile area."
~Marion Simon, Cooperative Extension, Kentucky State University

 

 



 


This producer merited an honorable mention from SARE judges in the program's 2004 Patrick Madden Award contest. Impressed by the breadth of farming and ranching operations nominated across the country, SARE's judging panel recommended more than 30 producers to be recognized as part of the contest.

 




 





 

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