In the heart of the Bluegrass where rolling hills meet limestone-rich soil, one organization is working to celebrate and acknowledge Kentucky’s rich agricultural history while also working to foster its strong and sustainable future. 

Black Soil KY, formerly known as Black Soil: Our Better Nature, based in Lexington, Kentucky is a marketing and branding agribusiness focused on the reconnection of Black Kentuckians to their heritage in agriculture, according to Executive Director Ashley Smith. 

Smith earned a degree in sociology from the University of Kentucky in 2008 before making the transition into agriculture. With her unique perspective, coming from a humanities background, this allowed her to have a new approach to agriculture, Smith said.

By having a focus on education, entrepreneurship and community building, Black Soil KY is writing a tale focused on sustainability, food justice and the cultural connection agriculture has fostered for generations. 

With the legacy of African American farmers often being overlooked in conversations surrounding modern agriculture, Black Soil KY is giving new life to Kentucky’s farming industry by highlighting the valuable contributions of Black farmers, according to Smith. 

In the United States, Black farmers once made up a large portion of those fueling the agriculture business, most notably in the South. However, due to systemic racism and land loss, the number of Black farmers has drastically declined. Black farmers owned less than 2% of the nation’s farmland in 2017, in comparison to the 14% in 1920, according to an article written by The New York Times.  

Working to address the deep-rooted history of Black Kentuckian farmers, Smith has worked to address the uncomfortable reality of how racism has impacted Kentucky agriculture.

“The hemp, tobacco, equine and distilling that we pride ourselves on as Kentuckians were formed, developed, cultivated through enslaved men, women and children. Agritourism allowed us to really confront an uncomfortable reality for many Kentuckians,” Smith said. 

Black Soil KY focuses on the idea that Black owned farmland can function as a gathering and educational space, according to the Black Soil KY website. 

“Necessity is the mother of invention, and so stepping into ag from working in the arts and hospitality and service, it was very apparent and clear that a missed opportunity to have a deeper connection and more wide inclusion of all land owners, agriculturalists, farmers and chefs here locally,” Smith said.

Black Soil KY functions as the middle ground between the farm and the table and is working to shorten the divide between rural and urban Kentucky. Black Soil KY has given a platform for small Black-owned businesses to reach a larger audience. 

Since opening its doors, Black Soil KY has rebranded to now include not just agriculture, but agribusiness and agritourism. With initiatives such as Youth Ag Day and State of the Soil, the organization is fueling the future of agriculture in the state of Kentucky. 

Giving back to the community through their initiatives, Black Soil KY’s Sprout Mobile Farmacy Market travels across the state of Kentucky, providing fresh produce to Kentuckians. 

“The Sprout Mobile Farmacy Market is a part of a larger national strategy that really strategizes around mobile markets being a key component to eradicating food insecurity, scarcity and hunger,” Smith said. “So let’s not make it harder for our consuming public and those families who can be more sustainable if life and some of those challenges were moved out of the way.” 

The Sprout Mobile Farmacy Market sources products grown by Black farmers around the state, giving them a reliable outlet to sell their goods.

In 2024, Black Soil KY’s Eat Local Year Round challenge tour connected the organization to nearly 19,000 Kentucky families after working with their community partners to take Kentucky Proud produce, meats, eggs and other goods to Kentucky communities, according to Smith. 

One of the primary goals of Black Soil KY is to create a network of Black farmers and growers, so that they can work together to bridge the gap between a farmer’s goods and their consumers, according to Smith. Black Soil KY cultivates farming practice as more than just farming, but a community. 

“They never want to abandon their rural communities, they keep that at the forefront,” Smith said. “And so one of the biggest accomplishments has been seeing stability being brought to rural economic prosperity and sustainability across rural and urban communities.” 

Black Soil KY gave already established farmers a new outlook, according to Smith. 

“We took farms that were already ready and had the potential and brought together a sector of exceptional leaders who needed that magnetism to attract each other and be interdependent, to then inspire not just those who come from the same community or culture, but all of Kentucky,” Smith said.

Pushing against the status quo, Kentucky agriculture has stepped up and embraced the discussion about the challenges all farmers face without exclusion or alienation, according to Smith. 

“We want to continue growing our impact and the engagement that we have through our markets. This will allow us to really lock in even deeper to bringing farm narrative storytelling to the forefront and more deeply connecting folk to the farm-to-table experience,” Smith said.