We talked about data centers, plus the state fair, local produce in schools, and much more.

As Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Schell stopped by our studio earlier today.

He sat down with our Emily Prince.

Commissioner Schell, thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.

How are you doing, sir?

Absolutely.

Doing well.

I love being on CT.

Thank you all for the service that you provide for the state of Kentucky.

Yes, we're happy to have you.

I know you're in a busy season with the State Fair coming up, and we'll certainly get to that.

So I want to ask you first about some Kentucky agriculture policy, specifically Senate Bill five, which passed earlier during this year's legislative session.

That has to do with, you know, public schools being able to buy produce from local farmers.

So I want to ask you to talk to us more about what this legislation really does.

And what changes will we see?

Is this new school year kicking off?

Yeah.

So we had some some lower procurement numbers to where it prohibited schools or limited them from the amount of produce that they could contract directly with a farmer.

And so what we did was we increased those numbers to where that school could do more forward contracting with farmers so that they could get fresher, healthier food, more localized inside the school system.

And so that allows for them to plan for the season ahead to where they can be more comparable on pricing, rather than it being purely retail pricing that farmers selling today like they would a farmer's market or somewhere else, they can they can provide more of a wholesale pricing atmosphere around that, with a dedicated market from a school district to where they can plan for the future a little bit better.

Gotcha.

And you brought up something, you know, that I was thinking this isn't necessarily a new concept, just kind of making some changes to the guardrails there, right?

I remember where I'm from in western Kentucky a few years back.

They introduced that local produce to the schools, and it did kind of trickle off with time.

So anything else you want to add?

Like what are the main changes that we see with this Senate bill fast.

This is a fairly new concept.

So the the the moneys in the dollars that you're thinking of where a federal program called LFA is.

And it did tie to retail pricing.

And one of the issues with that is it's great for a farm community for sure, but they're required to pay retail pricing.

And so whenever you're talking about trying to create a market stability and getting them used to that retail pricing, as soon as those federal dollars drop, they stop purchasing it.

And that's what we saw whenever the program in a way.

So we're working towards how can we make this more of a sustainable atmosphere toward that?

Our farmers can have a dedicated market with, you know, getting an increased price than what they would maybe get on just a strict wholesale market, but maybe not quite as retail as what it was with that programing and at a farmers market.

We'll stay tuned to see how that pans out.

As the school year comes.

But that's excellent legislation.

Something else I want to ask you about on a Kentucky scale, but really at a national scale, too, two buzzwords.

Everybody has an opinion on data centers, but I think kind of the perspective we sometimes don't get is the agricultural perspective.

How do you view that and do you?

I think the question is, do you view that as a threat to potential farmland, the amount of property that it takes for these data centers?

Yeah, I think that it can be a threat.

And I think that what we are is very cautious in how we move forward with data centers and are asking our local elected officials, economic developers and our state officials to be very cautious in how they're doing this, to set up policies and guardrails the appropriate way.

And I and I think us in that community are not necessarily anti data center because we all recognize that we're in a race against China for national security purposes.

What concern me is what we don't know the.

So what we're going to be talking about with the legislature in this next session around policy is having a disclosure understanding of who actually owns these companies and where they're coming from, to make sure that if they are in America, that they're American owned.

I don't think that we want subsidiary companies that are shelled and secretive to worry that China ends up owning what we have here in America with our data.

Something else that we need is a negative impact statement to the communities, not just to come in and say, we're going to have a more tax base and you're going to build new schools and get new roads and new busses and pay raises for teachers.

You know, those are all great things, but it's not enough just to say the positive.

We need to understand and have more information around what negative impacts may come into a community.

And it's not just data centers, it's on solar projects as well that we've talked about.

And then looking at this from how we how we structure this in zoning tour, that it doesn't negatively impact citizens in that area, from property taxes to the value of their properties to their energy rates.

And cost.

And so, you know, we just need to make sure that as we're putting policy in place, that we're doing it the appropriate and correct way and putting them in communities where they want them.

You know, whenever you think about the gaseous diffusion plant down in Paducah, where they just announced a huge project, that makes sense to me, you know, it was a nuclear plant, it was decommissioned, you know, now could potentially be a data center.

There's other areas in which we can do that without taking out 220 bushel acre corn land that's in our rural areas of the state.

And so I think that we just have to be smart about how we do develop this industry.

Yeah.

What appreciate your perspective on that.

And we'll keep following it, especially as we get even closer to the next legislative session.

Let's talk about some that probably a little bit near and dear to the heart at Kentucky State Fair, which kicks off tomorrow.

Conversation a week from today.

Correct.

You know, there's been a lot of news about the State Fair board and changes to that this year.

I know you serve on that board, but I want to talk about the politics of that.

I want to talk about the state fair and what's going on with that.

What are you looking forward to?

What do you expect to see and talk about the importance of agriculture at this tradition?

Absolutely.

We're going to have an amazing state fair this year.

We're celebrating America's 250th birthday.

So there'll be a lot of patriotic themes that are around and and inside the facility.

We've got so many amazing opportunities for people to come and experience the state fair and experience the best that Kentucky has to offer.

We kick off the State Fair every year with the commodity breakfast for all of our commodity groups come in, and there's hundreds of people that come to have that breakfast.

If you ever want fish for breakfast, that's a good place to go.

They serve catfish and everything else.

And so it's just a great place to be able to highlight and really respect what our agriculture heritage is here in Kentucky.

And you'll be able to see the best of the best that Kentucky has to offer, from fruits and vegetables and their contests that they do to pies and cookies, to quilts.

And then we have our livestock shows that are there as well, where families are have worked all year long to try and produce a really great animal to be able to showcase to the judges, to try to win.

But those livestock shows are not always about building great animals.

They're about building good kids.

We have a couple of fun things that we do with the giant Pumpkin and Watermelon Contest, which will be on August 22nd.

That first Saturday we have Military Sunday, where we have a concert series, and there's a great opportunity there and we have a sensory day where we have the sunshine class as well.

And so if there's a family with special needs that Wednesday of the state Fair, you can come out and they turn the lights and the sounds off of the entertainment outside of castles toward that.

There's no issues around sensory.

And then that at 1:00 that day, we'll have a sunshine class to where the special needs individuals can get that show experience just like the kids do.

And we'll pair them up with a mentor, and they can show a lamb around and they get a a Sunshine Grand Champion banner.

It's really sweet.

And just to see the joy on their faces is absolutely amazing and there's no age limit on it.

So if you're special needs a nanny, you can come and participate.

Excellent.

You mentioned the pumpkin contest.

Now I understand you have a participating pumpkin and that this year.

Is that right?

So I'm not allowed to win.

Okay, Commissioner, but we have a commissioner's challenge.

And I've been growing pumpkins for about five years, and this is my best year.

So I'm going to be delivering about an 800 pound pumpkin this year.

Wow.

And now granted, last year's winner was 1,621 pounds okay.

And so it's a Mazda.

They basically bring a small vehicle to the state fair as a pumpkin.

And it's truly an amazing experience and just it's one of the biggest attractions we have there, several hundred if not thousands of people in the stands.

So many watch it on the live stream.

But man, I get a little rot on the stem.

So I had to cut it the other day.

But we're preserving it and we're bringing it.

It's going to be whole and fun, but it's one of my favorite things that I do during the year.

And I raise 30 acres of pumpkins to sell, you know, to the public and to our, our wholesale customers.

But I spend more time on those four giant pumpkin plants than I do the entire 30 acres.

Okay, there you go.

I'm sure people are looking out right to say, okay, I got to meet Commissioner Shell.

Twix.

He got I got to be.

We do the commissioners challenge so that in her mind in that.

So that if they beat me, they get extra prize money in this case.

So.

So.

Yes.

All right.

And I know you all usually.

I mean it's a huge crowd, right.

Something like 600,000.

Yes.

And a ton of food and things that are consumed.

So we're looking forward to see what it's a. Great impact, a fun fact that we have been giving out popcorn from the department booth for a long time, and last year we gave out 63,000 cups of popcorn.

Wow.

Yeah.

That just.

Yeah, it's hard.

That's hard to put in to.

That may be my second favorite thing outside the giant pumpkin.

Here.

Come get.

The popcorn.

Absolutely.

It's a lot of popcorn.

We're going to have more with Commissioner Shell tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, where we ask about the former state lawmakers future political plans, including the possibility of a run for higher office.

You won't want to miss that.

That's tomorrow night right here on Wkyt.