My family has been farming in May’s Lick since before Kentucky became a state. Each generation has been dedicated to improving the land for our successors. My father and mentor has always stressed that my job was to leave the farm in better shape than I found it.

It’s rare when I don’t worry about money. It is a constant challenge to keep the farm going post tobacco. After surviving for so many generations, I don’t want it to fail on my watch!

In my time farming though, I have never thought “oh, gee I have too much land.” I’ve always wished I had just a little more pasture, a few more acres so that I could grow more corn or more beans or run a few more cows.

But we have never ever considered letting outside “big business” — with no ties to our community — come on to our farm and “share” the land. I just don’t understand why anyone would want to. To make life easier? Wouldn’t it be easier to just sell your farm? I don’t understand how anyone could just give away control of the land that has been in local families for generations to a group of outsiders: 1. that don’t even farm and 2. they want it for non-agricultural purposes. You think it will still be your farm? I can guarantee that they have better attorneys than anyone here can ever afford. Is the plan to pass down to their descendants or next-generation farmers a potentially ruined land with compromised ownership?

The average age of a farmer in Kentucky is 57.6 years old, according to the Courier Journal. I’m 66. I can’t do as many things as I used to do and it’s almost impossible to get help. But, I was very fortunate a couple of years ago to partner with a next-generation farmer. A young man who grew up in the area who always wanted to farm. He went to college to study agriculture, worked on a ranch while in school, and has proved that care of the land is the number one priority! I’ve let him move his livestock onto the farm. We share responsibilities and acres. I’m also learning new ways of creating revenue but bottom line — my family still controls all the land.

I have recently become aware that our agricultural way of life in May’s Lick is at risk. Again! 2013. Ring any bells? That was the year many of us became aware that outside “big business” was partnering with a few of our neighbor farmers to put up huge wind turbines and they were sworn to secrecy. Only by attending county meetings did I discover that our farm bordered one of those “big business” farmers. 2021 — seems some area farmers are keeping secrets again.

I don’t have the right to tell anyone what they can do with their farm.

But I do have the right to ask questions because I just don’t understand why somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 to 6,000 acres will go out of full agricultural production locally and I think we all know The Green New Deal isn’t the reason!

I don’t know much about the solar industry other than it is too expensive for me to outfit my house or barns with. I can’t even get my solar fence chargers to work if it’s cloudy and according to Goggle, we only average 189 days of sun a year in Kentucky.

When some slick talker from out-of-state contacted me last year, I was skeptical. To be honest, I just don’t trust “big business.“ Like politicians, big companies will promise whatever will give them the most power or tax breaks or monetary incentives the government is giving away on any given day. They are so powerful. They can promise the sun and the moon and then change their minds when it suits them and suffer no consequences. Politicians lose elections. At least I have a voice when I vote. But outsider “big business” — you can bet they don’t really give a damn about this area if it won’t inflate their bottom line. “Big Business” buys and sells at a whim or just files for bankruptcy… Where will we be then?

There is a reason my great grandfather promoted May’s Lick as the asparagus bed of Mason County. Asparagus only grows in the richest soil and May’s Lick has some of the finest in Kentucky. History will be the ultimate judge as to the future of agriculture in this area and if there will even be a next generation of farmers. “Big business” and their promise of short term gains for some landowners today — may mean the loss of a way of life for us all.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”