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The New Face of Manufacturing: Marksbury Farm Market Meets Demand for Local Meats

Nestled in the rolling hills of the Bluegrass in Central Kentucky is a 12,000 s.f., USDA-inspected meat processing and distribution facility that specializes in providing locally raised, farm-to-table meats to the region. The plant opened in 2010 in response to this rising specialty food market and hasn’t slowed down since.

Richard McAlister, who co-founded the company with two local farmers and has since added several more partners, said he became interested in starting the business when he, as a consumer, was struggling to find locally pasture-raised meat in the area.

 

“The age of communication has changed people’s awareness of how food is being produced,” he said. “People are very aware of where their food comes from and how it’s produced. We were seeing that starting to emerge and we felt strongly that Kentucky could support grass-based agriculture. We have an instantly renewable resource in Kentucky—it rains, we have sunshine, therefore, we have good grass. For herbivores, that’s what they are designed to eat. Pig and chickens are omnivores but they can do very well in the pasture. We wanted to encourage that type of agriculture production, and we felt like we could fill a gap where that was needed.”

 

To learn more about how Marksbury Farm Market operates, go to marksburyfarm.com. Pictured above from left to right are Marksbury Farm partners Greg Correll, Preston Correll, Leonard Harrison, Richard McAlister, Cliff Swaim and John-Mark Hack.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a contributing author and not necessarily Gray.

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