Supporting Local Agriculture Through Education with Dr. Keith Carver

Julia: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I’m your host, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is—two reasons why this guest is very special to me: one, because I live in a very small town outside of Knoxville called Lenoir City, Tennessee, and agriculture is a massive part of my life. And I know that a lot of people that have met me know that I’ve traveled the world, I’ve coached all over, I like big, expensive things and I’m the big city girl but really, internally at heart, I’m a little girl from [Citico 00:00:41], Tennessee, who understands the importance of agriculture. And Dr. Keith Carver is the senior chancellor and Senior Vice President of UT AG Center, and that is a massive, important thing for the University of Tennessee, but the world as a whole. So, Dr. Keith Carver, thank you for being our guest on today’s episode of Connect the Knox.

Keith: Julia, it is such a delight to be here with you. Thank you.

Julia: Absolutely. So, let’s get into it because I know that right now, the conversation for farmers in America is huge. Agriculture conversation is huge. Many farms are popping up everywhere. People are looking to get back down to basics, if that’s really truly how you’re looking at it. And UT offers such a worldwide connection and your ability to connect that with everything that’s going on in promoting it. So, let’s get into it. Tell us about you and your connection to Knoxville.

Keith: Sure. Well, you know, I first came to Knoxville in graduate school 30 years ago this summer. So, came up to work at the University, to work on my master’s. I was working full time and, Julia, just fell in love with it. I’m from rural West Tennessee, from a farming community over near Jackson, Tennessee, but came up here, came for an education and a job, fell in love with East Tennessee, especially the Metro Knoxville area, and have basically been with the university ever since.

I left for two short years to go to work at a small college in Ohio, but wrapping up my 27th year with UT, and I’m just so grateful to be here. But all three of our children—my wife and I have been married 28 years—all three of our children born in Knoxville, our two adult children still live in Knoxville, and just had our first grandchild born in [crosstalk 00:02:32]. So, it feels like home. It really does.

Julia: It always feels like home.

Keith: Yeah.

Julia: That’s why people say.

Keith: Right. You’re exactly right.

Julia: We love that. So, what exactly—explain to the world out there—what exactly it is that you do for UT?

Keith: Absolutely. So, as a senior leader for the Institute of Agriculture, we are a big part of the University of Tennessee’s land-grant mission. So, we teach and educate, we certainly provide public service and outreach, and then we do a lot of research. And, Julia, how we do that is we have a presence—the Institute of Agriculture has a presence in all 95 counties. So, there’s a UT extension office in all 95 counties.

What do those extension offices do? Well, they certainly help farmers, they help gardeners, they help people that are worried about their lawns or their animals, but they also provide great information for families, whether it be healthy—having a healthier lifestyle; how to really form a budget; first-time homebuyers, what are tips they need and help people get those first time loans; how do people do—you know, how do they become more debt savvy and pay off debt; family and consumer sciences. So, there’s a one-stop shop for anything you might need, and it’s all free, and it’s in every county across the state. We also have ten research centers across the state that’s doing everything from research in wheat and corn and soybean, all the way to how to make your beef cattle or your dairy farm operate more efficiently. And, Julia, so many times when you think about research at a university, you think about well, this is something that’s really only good for big science, but when you think about the research we do as the land-grant institution, it’s research that goes right back onto farms and people’s homes that they can use immediately because we all want safer food, we all want safer products, and we all want to be able to farm more efficiently to get food and fiber into our homes.

So, that’s effectively what we do. Here in Knoxville with the education mission, we have a full complement of agricultural bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD programs, and something you see when you’re driving along Neyland Drive, right there where a beautiful UT Gardens are, is our school for veterinary medicine, which [audio break 00:05:06] exploded over the last few years. So, about 2800 employees statewide, and an agriculture UT AG presence in all 95 counties. So, it’s a big operation.

Julia: It is and it affects people, I—what I think is normal, what I think is what everybody grew up with is not the case. So, as a real estate agent who owns their own brokerage and has grown in Knoxville and seen this, the opportunities to have conversations with people specifically about financing, that is one of my biggest, like, please learn how to save money properly. I want you to be a homeowner, I want you to be a successful homeowner. The second thing I offer all of the people that come and do business with me is the opportunity to introduce them to my local farmers. We, as a family, purchased a cow, a sheep, chickens, and a pig every year. And I thought the whole world knew this was an opportunity. I brought something to show you my very first 4-H award.

Keith: Look at you.

Julia: I thought this was normal. I thought the whole world knew about this. They do not.

Keith: Sure.

Julia: Yeah, yeah.

Keith: And so, we just—Julia, we should have had you on campus; last week, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of 4-H Summer Roundup, right [crosstalk 00:06:20]—

Julia: Oh man.

Keith: Had about 300 4-H’ers from all over the state in for a summer camp, but because we were turning 100, it was really special. But last year, 136,000 Tennessee youth attended or participated in the 4-H program. It’s the largest program in the country and we’re just so proud of it. And thank you for being such a supporter. And—

Julia: Oh absolutely. I introduce every person to my local farmers. “This is where you get meat. You need to go ahead and—this is when you order it.” I’ll send you—I’ll send out a blast to all of my past clients and say, “It’s time for you to order. You’re not going to get what you need if you don’t order now. This is who you call. This is where you need to go pick it up.”

Our people do everything for us. They even delivered it one year on Christmas Eve because that’s when it came in. It was so important to them to get us our local meat. And we’ve always done that. So, I really genuinely, truly appreciate everything that AG does. I’ll be there for the 101th anniversary. You put me down on that calendar. I will be there. I’ll bring my award [laugh].

Keith: That’s right. We’ll bring you up, introduce you to all those students. That is a great thing. And I’ll make sure we do that next July.

Julia: Well, I’ll tell you the story at another time, but you asked John [Goddard 00:07:29], you tell him you met Julia Hurley, he will tell you the chicken story. It is the funniest, also saddest story in the whole world. But we—4-H has been such a part of my life. So, agriculture in today’s society is a, what I feel like is a new one. So, it’s a new thing.

People are really embracing growing their own food, learning how to can again. We’ve completely done a 180 away from the big city grocery store living to, let me learn where this comes from and learn how to do it myself or try to contribute to the people that do it. What can people—everyday people—do to get involved with UT AG?

Keith: You know, I think that the biggest thing is look for ways to advocate for agriculture. That’s the biggest thing. And we have—Julia, as you said, we’ve really enjoyed a renaissance of people who want local food on their table, who want to go farm-to-table eating or farm-to-fork eating. And it’s so important, and so I think as you look at how Tennessee is growing, how you look as our country is growing, as the world is growing, we’ve got fewer farmers and farms than we had 20 years ago. And so, things that we can do to advocate for farming, helping generational farmers be able to pass along that farm to a new generation of farmers I think is so critically important.

But shopping local and certainly supporting those local smaller farms is a piece of all that and helping. And personally, I’m encouraged. I know several people that are currently here in Knoxville that we haven’t bought eggs in a grocery store for quite a while because we’re buying farm-fresh eggs. And so, if you take those little steps and really advocate for agriculture in big ways, it’s so important. Tennessee is number three in the country, unfortunately right now, in farmland loss.

Julia: Really?

Keith: Really.

Julia: Oh, wow.

Keith: One of the things we’re doing to advocate—now still, 49% of Tennessee’s acreage is coded farm agricultural use and so that’s great, but that’s down from several years ago. So, really advocating for the farmers, supporting more of our regional farmers, and really, our legislators have been so good to help enable new laws that make it easier for people to farm in Tennessee, and we’re grateful for that.

Julia: Yeah, I know the inheritance tax, that the break on inheritance tax that we passed in 2010 was up t—it was a $5 million change in—farm equipment is $5 million. I mean let’s not pretend like we don’t know what farm equipment costs. If you don’t know what farm equipment costs, it’s millions and millions and millions of dollars and these people are taking these loans out for generations, so being able to pass that along to the next generation without paying that inheritance tax is definitely a break for Tennessee farmers, for sure.

Keith: Extremely important. That’s right.

Julia: For sure. Okay, what challenges have you faced and what did you do to change that?

Keith: Sure. You know, I’ve just—you know, been at UT 27 years, but I’ve only been in this role for five months. I was, in the months, in the years leading up to this, six years leading up to this, I was the chancellor for the UT Martin campus over in Weston. So, [unintelligible 00:11:03] in here, but what we’ve had to do, we’ve had a lot of transition. We’ve had three—four senior leaders in a little over 18 months here, and so I think the challenge coming in is just having someone that’s really committed to building a team.

And I don’t know, Julia, just how good of a leader I am, but if I have any skill at all, it’s I can recognize talent and really help people work together to lift an organization. And what I’ve seen here, whether it be in our College of Veterinary Medicine, our Dean of Research, our Dean of Extension, our Dean over at the Herbert College, we’ve got some incredible people, incredible faculty, incredible students, and getting our team to work relentlessly to advocate—to educate and advocate every day on behalf of Tennessee agriculture and building this team so that we can be as high-functioning and effective for Tennesseans. And that’s our main goal is to make Tennessee a better place for food and fiber production, food security. And if we’re doing that—and that’s our goal every day is to make Tennessee better—we’re going to be successful. And so, building team has been what we’ve been focused on.

Now, the next year, we’re kicking off in next month, our strategic planning process. We’re looking at the five years. Where’s Tennessee agriculture—

Julia: Oh, yeah. Sure.

Keith: —in five years? And so, we’ll be consumed with that for the next eight or nine months. But for me, it’s really exciting. So, much has changed coming out of Covid, the way [crosstalk 00:12:36] programs, the way people expect their food to be processed and delivered, the way they expect plants to grow, and we need to be at the forefront of that for all Tennesseans.

Julia: I would agree with that a hundred percent. I visit my local farmer’s market every Saturday, and I stock up on everything for the week that I need, and I’ve started the canning process. You know how it is, at 900 degrees in the house with the air conditioner on, it’s ready to go—

Keith: Absolutely.

Julia: But, I would love to see and I know that you all have a great partnership with Cruze Farm, here locally in Knoxville—

Keith: We do.

Julia: —[crosstalk 00:13:09] my gosh, I just had some coffee milk earlier to keep my spirits alive, so it’s addictive. And there’s a lady at my farmers market, we call her the milk lady—that’s what she calls herself: the milk lady—and she sells whole milk from the cow.

Keith: Wow.

Julia: And it’s delicious.

Keith: Oh, yeah.

Julia: And I would love to see a—wh—deregulation is not the right word for what I’m thinking—

Keith: Right.

Julia: —I think, but I would love to see more of an open opportunity for people to educate themselves on what raw milk can do for you and what real food from a farm without any extra can do for your health and your body.

Keith: Well, Julia, the next time you’re in Knoxville, I want you to either call me, or just on your own if it’s a Monday through Saturday—you know where the Vista Center is on the corner of Kingston Pike and Neyland Drive that the old Vista Center across from—

Julia: I do, yes.

Keith: —they’ve just reopened the UT Creamery. So, in the building, you can buy fresh ice cream made with UT milk on campus, and it’s open from 12 to 7 this summer. We’re going to do a hard launch once school starts, but bringing back some of that local flavor—literally—for ice cream. There’s five flavors now, we’re going to eventually be up to 15.

Julia: Nice.

Keith: But if—we hope what that does, not only is in a great research opportunity for our students, not just in dairy and food safety, food science, but also for hospitality and restaurant and management students to go over how do you market this? How are we going to market it to a greater Knoxville community? And we’re really excited about that. But that gets to your point in the more local you can make production, the more buzz it has, so it’s great. So yeah, next time you’re over here, let me know and I’ll treat you. It’s a—

Julia: [laugh]. That’s a deal. I’m on my way [laugh]. Just kidding.

Keith: But I need to tell you though, in all candor, though, I would not say it’s low calorie, but it’s delicious. How about that?

Julia: When someone else is buying your food, it’s always no calories.

Keith: That is true.

Julia: That’s [crosstalk 00:15:15].

Keith: And maybe [if it’s a 00:15:16] product of a research project, those calories don’t count? I don’t know.

Julia: Negative calories [laugh].

Keith: That’s exactly right.

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Julia: So, what are the plans for the future, I mean, a five-year plan? We all I mean, as business owners in general—you’re running a business there. Let’s just face it. You may be an employee of the system, but it’s a business. So, you got the two-year, five-year, ten-year, forever plan. What is that plan? What does that look like?

Keith: You know, I think one of the things that you’ll see is over the next five years, we’re going to grow enrollment in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Right now, the demand—not just in Tennessee, but certainly in Tennessee, but the southeast in the country—is we don’t have enough veterinarians. And those professionals that you and I grew up with, our families grew up with taking care of our animals, they’re retiring, and so we’ve got to replace those. And so, we’re going to expand enrollment. We’ve done several renovations at the College of Veterinary Medicine, getting ready for another renovation in the next couple of years, and an expansion of lab and teaching space, so that we can meet that workforce demand.

And that’s going to take the work of a lot of people because when you add—when you go up 41% more students, that’s also teaching faculty, clinical faculty, pharmacy techs, so it’s a huge business. That’s a big part of it. Also, we’re wanting to grow our undergraduate population. AG jobs, as you mentioned, it’s the state’s largest when you think about business and industry, agriculture, and its affiliated umbrella organization. So, it’s the largest business in the state.

And so, think about all the huge sectors of the economy in Tennessee, agriculture leading the way. But because of that, Julia, there are a ton of jobs out there, whether it’s AG economics, agribusiness, certainly things dealing with sciences, and research, but also sales and marketing and development of new products and pushing those products out, so—we’re working with seed companies—and so we’ve got to meet the demand for those growing job markets, too. So, you’ll see undergraduates, students on campus, as well as masters, and PhD students because it’s an area that needs to grow and we can grow it here.

Julia: Yeah, I think logistics is also something that factors hard into the agricultural community. People don’t think about it, they think the farm is stagnant. That food goes somewhere and it has to be transported properly in a timely fashion, and everything that you move ages at a certain rate. Logistics is very important. That’s a huge UT availability. It’s one of the only campuses around here that offers that as a major. So, that’s interesting.

Keith: And a great program.

Julia: Yeah. Well, my father-in-law is a large—was; he just retired—a large animal vet, so—

Keith: Oh.

Julia: —[crosstalk 00:18:45] your way to teach, he’ll be too—he’ll get on our nerves, so [unintelligible 00:18:48].

Keith: Oh, no, Julia, that’s the area—in all candor, that’s the area of greatest—we do not have enough large animal practitioners in rural areas. And we could double that amount and [crosstalk 00:19:02] the need. So, you know, tell him thanks for his years of service, but we need him for a little longer.

Julia: [laugh]. It’s like, “Hang in there. Hang in there.”

Keith: That’s right. That’s right. That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right.

Julia: Oh, man. All right. So, I would say one of the better questions I’ve had—and many of my things is all the things that you know now—

Keith: Yeah.

Julia: Go back to the very beginning. Knowing what you know, now, what would you think to contribute earlier and differently? What advice would you give younger people to be able to do the same?

Keith: You know, I’ll tell you what, I think coming up early, I was so, umm… I was raised in a single-parent household and in a rural area, and coming up, I thought success was really measured by your job title or advancement. I think what I would tell 25-year-old Keith Carver is spend more time with your wife and family and invest in the things that make you happy. Because if you’re passionate about work, if you’re passionate about your home and your family and those relationships and those people that give you joy, you’re going to be successful in your career. And no one ever is going to be on their deathbed saying they wish they’d work more hours. I think they’re going to say they wish they’d spent more time with family.

So, never letting promotions, career, salary advancements, the chase of those things that we measure success by so often in North America with things, never ever substitute or let that be the priority over relationships with family and friends. And so, invest in relationships first and everything else falls into place. That’s what I would have told me several years ago. And I’ve been very blessed. My wife and I have three great children and I’m very involved, but you know, I missed a lot of ballgames going up, or practices or Sunday night recitals because of travel and things like that. And while I did enough of them, I didn’t do all of them. And I’d have told myself that. So, invest in that family and friends first.

Julia: I asked [Peter Sovakia 00:21:16] earlier today what would be his best advice for the younger people in society today and he said the same: focus on your relationships. Make sure those relationships are stable and that they are contributed to [unintelligible 00:21:25] on your end and their end, and help each other grow and the things you want will come to you.

Keith: Absolutely. I agree one hundred percent.

Julia: Yeah. So, some really cool things. I follow all the UT extensions. I follow you, I follow the UT AG, all the cool things that you all are doing, and you have—okay, so this summer alone, I missed out on cooking brisket, the barbecue class. You all have—I had no idea how much you offer. Can you tell people one, what you’re offering every year, and two, where they can find that information? It seems to be… I’m always catching it right before it happens and can’t get it.

Keith: [unintelligible 00:22:03]. Sure. Well, thank you, and we do—and thanks for the opportunity to talk about it—I’ll take those sort of in the order you present them. We do have a smoking school and it’s always the Saturday—it’s early in the summer and we do it the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend, just because a lot of people hadn’t taken vacations yet, they’re out of school, kids are out of school, so maybe you get that Saturday and go.

About 300 people come and it’s hands-on. You learn brisket, you learn chicken, you learn pork, they talked about sides, it is absolutely wonderful. And so, that’s a great program that happens here. And plant and food sciences and animal science sort of combine for that. I think when you think about other things that are offered on an annual basis, there’s so much offered out of extension, whether it be you want to take a master gardening class, you want to take a class in health and wellness, or diabetes prevention, and the greatest thing to do, I think, is to follow the Institute of Agriculture’s website, and that’s utia.tennessee.edu. That’s utia.tennessee.edu. And it is, their press releases, their announcements, there’s so much that goes out. And you can also sign up for email updates. So, if you’re afraid you’re going to miss something, you can do it. But certainly following the Institute of Agriculture on Facebook, on Instagram, on X—whatever that is, Julia.

Julia: Oh, the name change today. That’s right. Oh [laugh].

Keith: That’ [crosstalk 00:23:45]. I love—I have loved Twitter but boy, I’ll tell you, it’s a huge change going to the—losing the bird and go into an X, and we’ll see where that goes. But we do a lot on Instagram and Facebook though, and [Snapchat 00:23:59], and so it’s an easy way to keep up with activities here.

Julia: Whatever we have to do to keep up with kids to keep them involved is what we have to do.

Keith: Absolutely. Absolutely. You’re right. You’re right.

Julia: Yeah. Got to make the next generation know that they are valued, their opinion is valued, and we would love for you to continue the traditions in your own way, but here’s the traditions [laugh].

Keith: Oh, you bet.

Julia: [crosstalk 00:24:21].

Keith: Exactly right. That’s exactly right.

Julia: Yeah. Yeah, it’s very important. All three of our kids to understand the value. We’ve all been to Wampler’s Farm Sausage on the kill floor and cried, and then bought our pork on the way out. I mean, it’s part of the experience: understanding where your food comes from, you can respect it a lot more. Yes. All right. So, we’re going to do it, last five minutes fire round. Are you ready?

Keith: I—let—Julia, let’s go for it.

Julia: All right. Favorite grocery store?

Keith: You know, Butler & Bailey on Northshore Drive.

Julia: Butler & Bailey is so good.

Keith: I love it. Love Butler & Bailey’s.

Julia: Yes. So, I have a story. I had no idea that black walnut extract was a thing—this was 25 years ago and I learned how to make my first cake—

Keith: Yeah?

Julia: —and I couldn’t find it anywhere, and Butler and Bailey was the only place to have it. Such a rare extract to find. Now, I make my own, but—out of my trees in my backyard—but they are the only—and [unintelligible 00:25:17] I shop there.

Keith: It’s magnificent. And their meat and of course, you Sweetvalley Water cheese there—Sweetwater Valley cheese there. It’s just great. A lot of local products, and just high-quality meats, and just great people. Great people.

Julia: Cheese, Cows, and Wows, right in my backyard. [laugh].

Keith: Exactly right.

Julia: Okay. Favorite top three restaurants?

Keith: You know I’ll tell you what, here in Knoxville, my wife and I love a good breakfast, so we love [audio break 00:25:49] downtown on Union, love to do that. Julia, I’ve—a little bit of a throwback but we love Copper Cellar.

Julia: Oh yeah.

Keith: We lost our top location because the one on the strip closed, but still love to go to Copper Cellar out west. And I’ll tell you what, just for a great night out and to look at the water, we love Lakeside Tavern, just love to go out there and sit outside and look outside, or at least look through those back windows at Lake Loudoun, and just really hard to beat.

Julia: Yeah, Lakeside Tavern’s fantastic. Their salmon, they make their own mustard. It’s ridiculously good. So good.

Keith: Absolutely. But you know, there’s a hundred great places. I love [Arrows 00:26:35] in Rocky Hill. I mean, there’s so many good ones. So many.

Julia: So, one of the biggest questions I always ask is, when someone visits you that’s never been to Knoxville before, what hidden gem is the first place you either take them to or see or experience?

Keith: Now, you’re going to think I’m saying this because I’m currently working at the Institute of Agriculture, but for years, for decades, we’ve taken people to the UT Gardens.

Julia: Oh yeah.

Keith: You know, it’s hard to believe that there’s that many acres under incredible care and cultivation and manicuring, right there on the river. And so, I love to take people and walk through the gardens. And we find out something new every time we go. If we’re also staying in Knox County, a lot of times we’ll take them up to House Mountain because, you know, it’s a Smokies experience without the drive over into Pigeon Forge in Sevier County. So, love House Mountain, love the UT Gardens. But you know, there’s nothing like Neyland Stadium on Saturday either.

Julia: If you can get tickets [laugh].

Keith: That’s exactly right.

Julia: I mean, you may have a hook-up there. I’m not sure [laugh].

Keith: Maybe a little. That’s right.

Julia: Maybe a little. So, I bought my house from the four—two presidents ago from the Tennessee Arboretum Association. And our backyard is like… she planted things back here I did not know existed in Tennessee. I don’t think they did until she brought them to this backyard. Stunning. Stunning backyard.

Keith: Oh, I hope you just take full credit for it. I hope you just say—

Julia: [laugh].

Keith: “[crosstalk 00:28:13]. I did this.”

Julia: I told neighbors, “This is me. I garden all day.” [laugh].

Keith: That’s exactly right.

Julia: Dr. Carver, thank you so much for taking time for us today. I know that UT is so—I’m just so excited. The right leadership is finally in place, bringing in amazing leaders like you, bringing in a five-year, ten-year plan, I know it’s going to grow. I know you’re going to do everything you can to make sure that the agricultural system in the state of Tennessee is protected and educated. If there’s anything that we can ever do to let people around us know or contribute in any way, you have our contact information. And I will be seeing you for that free ice cream [laugh].

Keith: Absolutely. And 4-H Roundup. And 4-H Roundup.

Julia: [crosstalk 00:28:53]. Oh, I’ll be there. Put that on the calendar for sure. I will bring—I have held on to this award since high school, and it is a very proud award. I have almost gotten rid of everything in the house, but this. So.

Keith: That is great. Well, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Julia: Thank you. Listeners, again, if you are here and you were visiting Tennessee, Knoxville for the first time, we have thousands of kids currently enrolling and bringing your parents here to visit, UT Gardens is the place. Go get some ice cream from the Ice Creamery there at the Visitor Center right on Neyland and Kingston Pike. If you have any questions, let us know. We’ll put Dr Carver’s information and website and all of the places to follow the AG system on this YouTube channel as well. Thank you for visiting. I’m Julia Hurley, your host of Connect the Knox. Thank you so much for visiting. Bye.

Julia: Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a five-star review on your podcast player of choice, and if you would like information on moving to Knoxville, send me a private message. As always, this is Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation.