By Lily Burris
The new Meats and Foods Industry Advancement Center in Versailles will give students an opportunity to learn more about how animals are farmed and processed for consumption.
University of Kentucky students will have new opportunities to study animal agriculture following the Wednesday ribbon-cutting of the new Meats and Foods Industry Advancement Center.
In addition to the new research facility, originally budgeted at $90 million, the site at the C. Oran Little Research Farm will also feature a community farm store, Wildcat Market, offering meat produced by UK students studying animal agriculture, butchering and processing.
UK Vice President for Land-Grant Engagement Laura Stephenson said the facility is “an important step forward” for agriculture in the commonwealth.
“As Kentucky's land grant university, our responsibility is to put knowledge to work, so this means in listening to the people and the industries we serve, understanding the challenges they face, and bringing together the expertise and resources needed to develop practical solutions,” Stephenson said as university officials celebrated alongside state legislators Wednesday in Versailles.
Kentucky is home to more than 69,000 farms, according to a 2022 federal census. That's down nearly 20,000 from two decades prior. The agricultural products sold in 2022 were valued at more than $8 billion.
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