Our choice for KY’s next Agriculture Commissioner is dynamic candidate, good partner to farmers | Opinion

The choice for Agriculture Commissioner is an easy one.

Sierra Enlow is one of the smartest, most dynamic candidates on the ballot, one who fully deserves the chance to take her ideas into one of the Kentucky’s most important sectors.

Her opponent, Jonathan Shell, politely declined to meet with the editorial board. Once a Republican wunderkind in the House of Representatives and behind the scenes, he lost his seat in 2018 in the primary against a teacher who campaigned against Shell’s participation in the “sewer bill” to upend teachers pensions.

But it’s hard to imagine he could have convinced us he’d be a better choice than Enlow. Judging from his ads and other comments, his only opponent appears to be President Joe Biden.

Enlow, who comes from a fifth-generation farming family in LaRue County, should get the job for numerous reasons. For one thing, it would be great in 2023 to elect a woman for the first time; one of the last times we had the choice, Alice Baesler lost to Richie Farmer (and we all know how well that turned out).

Moreover, Enlow should be elected for her ideas, based on the platform that Kentucky farmers don’t need more advice on how to farm — they need more markets to sell their produce.

Enlow, who has bachelors and masters degrees in agriculture economics and now works as an economic development consultant, understands new and emerging markets. She wants to help guide the cannabis market as it evolves, reinvigorate hemp production, which suffered under processing and distribution woes, and build upon the Agriculture Department’s work in helping food-insecure places.

Medical marijuana, for example, could be a huge benefit to Kentucky, but it needs a complete supply chain worked out with processors and retailers, Enlow said in our editorial board interview.

Despite the recent failure of AppHarvest, Enlow believes that Kentucky needs to prepare for more controlled environment agriculture with industrial scale greenhouses. That means someone needs to be overseeing the conversations between producers, processors and sales people so that those kinds of businesses can succeed.

She has the kind of sharp yet holistic intelligence required to link the many, many pieces of the Agriculture Department. As she says, “it touches every Kentuckian,” like imports to exports, managing amusement parks, working on organic food, overseeing gasoline stations, helping get local produce and protein to food banks. The commissioner needs to get involved in wet/dry votes because it’s a matter of economic development.

“Companies are not going to locate in a dry county,” she pointed out. “There are a lot of implications to that.”

Enlow, who has also worked in politics, understands the pitfalls facing women candidates in general, and women candidates for agriculture commissioner in particular, and has run an energetic campaign across the state.

With climate change upon us, Kentucky farmers and producers will need all the fresh thinking and creative ideas they can get. We wholeheartedly endorse Sierra Enlow for the job.

This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 9:28 AM.