In 2026, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell hopes to work with the General Assembly on improving school nutrition, retaining Kentucky Department of Agriculture employees and economic development in the agricultural sector.
In an end-of-year interview with the Kentucky Lantern, Shell said his “number one priority in the budget cycle” is keeping his department’s employees. His team is still finalizing details on a request to the legislature to improve the department’s salaries, he said.
“We continue to lose employees to other state government entities. They’re doing the same job here, and they’re leaving and going somewhere else and making more money doing that same job somewhere else — in state government,” Shell said. “Helping retain those employees that do an amazing job for us here at the department, not having to retrain …. is really important in these jobs, and consistencies for the people that we represent, the partners that we have.”
During the 60-day legislative session that begins Jan. 6, Kentucky lawmakers will draft and pass the next state budget. Shell is working on other budget proposals around his Food is Medicine initiative with the Kentucky Hospital Association, which aims to get more nutritious food in the hands of medical facilities for patients and staff.
“What we’re looking at is nutrition as a health intervention,” Shell said. “Getting people healthy fresh food on the front end of their problem, post patient care, … looking at chronic illnesses around diabetes, hypertension, blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and seeing those lifestyle changes that we can make through local, healthy, fresh food.”
One Big Beautiful Bill
Shell said it “remains to be seen” what impact the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress this summer, could have on Kentucky farmers.
Congress cut the the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, by $187 billion through 2034
“I think that looking at SNAP from a local purchasing standpoint of local foods is extremely important — finding a way to get more of our products in agriculture that qualify (and) are available in places where they are able to put into that system,” he said.
In Kentucky, the Double Dollars program allows SNAP recipients to shop at farmers markets or other eligible shops and double the purchasing power of that benefit, incentivizing farm-fresh food.
He wants the state to “maximize those dollars for our local farm community” while simultaneously supporting more nutritious food for vulnerable people.
“Looking around SNAP reforms and ways in which to get local fresh food more available for them, is something that we’re always interested in doing. But I think the impact from … changes that would happen on the federal level, with Medicaid and also with SNAP, is yet to be seen until we get out of this legislative session to see how our state government kind of handles some of that.”
Congress cut Medicaid spending over 10 years by $880 billion.
Working with foster kids, other youth
Two of Shell’s children are adopted and he sits on the board of CASA of Lexington. (CASA stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocates.)
“We’ve got somewhere between 8-9,000 kids in the state of Kentucky that are in the system that … don’t need superheroes. They just need somebody,” Shell said. “They just need someone to show up for them and care about them and really pour into them.”
As of Dec. 7, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services reported 8,692 children were in out of home placements.
Because of his passion for child advocacy, Shell is working to connect children with food education in his role as commissioner, he said.
Last year, the department held its first All in Ag Week, which focused on bringing various agricultural experts into schools to teach youth about food, the business of farming and much more.
While it’s important to teach kids where food comes from and how food affects the human body, he said, schools also need ways to embed agriculture concepts into normal learning routines to show students the importance of agriculture, both as a career and as a source of sustenance.
“If they’re teaching math, we want it to be ag math,” Shell said of teachers. “If they’re teaching science, it’s ag science. With reading, it’s ag reading.”
The department’s two Ag Weeks in 2026 will be March 16-20 and Sept. 21-25.
On his political future
Shell, a Republican, was elected agriculture commissioner in 2023. He was previously a state representative.
“If there was a commissioner of foster and adoption, I’d have probably ran for that instead of commissioner of ag,” Shell joked. “It’s really my first love, but there’s not.”
Shell said he is “definitely running for reelection” in 2027 and “wishes we didn’t have term limits.”
“I wish I could do this for the rest of my life.”
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
