In late 2007, President Lee Todd established the University’s Sustainability Advisory Committee and appointed the initial membership for the group. Dr. Mark Williams, then an associate professor in the department of horticulture, was one of those appointed and he was selected to serve as one of the two inaugural co-chairs for this group. Over the next three years, Mark steadily led the work of getting UK’s first Sustainability Policy adopted. He was also a tireless champion for the creation of a University-wide sustainability coordinator position. These acts of service and leadership solidified the foundation that many of the efforts showcased here today are built upon. At that same time, Mark was also spearheading the University’s work in Sustainable agriculture.
In addition to being the driving force in the creation of the UK Sustainable Agriculture undergraduate degree program, teaching a majority of courses in the program, and being the primary program administrator, Mark was also busy building what has become one of the leading teaching farms for organic vegetable production in Land Grant University system. This was a very grassroots affair in the early years, especially, where side by side with students and a very committed staff, they created the UK Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, to provide students an opportunity to learn, hands-on how to grow nutritious, sustainably produced food. This came at a time when many headlines about Kentucky focused on our high rates of diet related diseases. Unique partnerships with other colleges such as the College of Design, helped transform the back of the University of Kentucky Horticulture Research Farm into a small compound of repurposed farm buildings to serve as classroom kitchens where students learn to cook the food they grow, a working farm shop, and a packing shed. Over the past 20 years, the farm has grown to house the 30 acre UK Organic Faming Unit. The CSA has grown to over 10 acres of production that serves over 200 UK families, has taught hundreds of students, trained some of Kentucky’s leading vegetable farmers, and serves as a model for not only academic instruction, but also Extension programming. The Sustainable Agriculture program has grown from a small pilot program to a formal degree program in the Martin Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and leverages partnerships and participation from departments across the college and beyond.