News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville’s Katie Martin has been named as the Upper Cumberland Regional Director for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation.
Martin served on the organization’s Putnam County Board as the Young Farmer and Rancher Chairman. Martin said agriculture runs in her family as she grew up on a third-generation family farm in Cookeville.
“We had horses and blueberries and we’ve got a farm with timber up in Jackson County and Clay County,” Martin said. “So my grandfather was really involved in agriculture and so was my father and it’s really an honor to be able to continue on that legacy.”
Martin said the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation helps the local agriculture industry by investing in the community through scholarships, supporting youth organizations, and educating young kids about agriculture. Martin said as director she will work to improve the regional agriculture industry by coordinating with farm bureau boards across 13 counties ranging from Warren County to Fentress County.
“I coordinate with those Farm Bureau Boards and kind of serve as a liaison from our home office in Columbia to help support our members, to help progress agriculture policies at the local, state, and national level,” Martin said.
Martin said one issue she sees in the local agriculture industry is that there is only a small percentage of people involved in production agriculture. Martin said to sustain the industry everyone in the Upper Cumberland must come together.
“We really just have to band together and kind of speak with one voice,” Martin said. “There are constantly legislations being discussed and even passed that could be detrimental to our farmers and Farm Bureau’s job is kind of to speak on behalf of them.”
Martin owns 40:8 Flower Company. Martin said another issue is the loss of farmland the Upper Cumberland has seen recently.
“We see all these houses going up and in some ways that’s really great for our communities but in other ways, it can be really difficult for our farmers to be able to keep expanding or keep being able to have the land they need to produce the food that we need so land loss is a huge issue and if we can find creative solutions to combat that I think that would be one way that we could really help agriculture in the Upper Cumberland. ”
Martin said in her first year as regional director she wants the boards of each county board and agency managers to understand how she can help them. Martin said she has a goal of increasing the amount 18-35-year-old people who are involved with the organization.
