EDITORIAL: Vegetable Farming Still Has Potential

By Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Jan. 5–The West Kentucky Growers Cooperative succumbed to financial problems last week, and that is unfortunate because people lost their jobs and the future of vegetable production in Daviess County has been cast in doubt. It also isn’t clear how the cooperative will pay the $3 million it owes the state Agriculture Development Board or what will become of the cooperative’s facilities in western Daviess County.

We hope that a reorganization plan being prepared by the cooperative with the state will resolve some of the immediate issues. As to the larger question of the viability of large-scale vegetable farming in Daviess County, we think it has already been answered positively, and the challenge is to figure how to take better advantage of this area’s good growing conditions for marketable, in-demand produce.

Vegetable production — tomatoes, green bell peppers, sweet corn and broccoli, among others — is seen as a way for farmers to replace tobacco income. The variables of weather, markets and timing make vegetable growing an enormously tricky proposition. Just this past fall, great things were expected of the broccoli crop, but November freezes took a heavy toll. There have been other times when the crops were good, but prices and timing were not.

What we do know is that vegetables can be grown locally and sold. The growers cooperative itself may have failed, but it is worth noting that although the cooperative didn’t make money, farmers often did. That fact holds out hope that vegetable farming can be successful here under the right circumstances and management techniques.

Farmers are savvy, adaptable business owners and have experience marketing their products. Whatever plan emerges for growing vegetables in Daviess County, we hope individual farmers, working in association and coordination with each other, can put the lessons learned from the past few years to work.

It is far too soon to abandon vegetable production in Daviess County. We agree completely with Keith Rogers, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy, who said vegetable production is viable for Kentucky farmers in some fashion, even if it is not viable for cooperatives.

Finding what that fashion is should be the next step.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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