In recognition of Women’s History Month, the Kentucky Ag News features Natalie Gupton, Kentucky Women in Agriculture’s 2021 Agribusiness Woman of the Year.
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AgSafe vice president & COO named Ky. Agribusiness Woman of the Year
By Chris Aldridge
Kentucky Ag News
Natalie Gupton calls herself “a non-traditional award winner” after Kentucky Women in Agriculture honored her last fall as its 2021 Agribusiness Woman of the Year.
Gupton is not among the growing ranks of female farmers in Kentucky. In fact, she doesn’t have anything to do with production agriculture, nor does she work in an ag-related retail business.
“I’m sort of a different spin on that (award),” said Gupton, vice president and chief operating officer of AgSafe, a non-profit that provides practical health and safety education to the agricultural community.
“We focus on the people of agriculture,” she added. “We take care of the farmer and the farm laborer.”
Since 1991, AgSafe has trained nearly 100,000 growers, farm labor contractors, packers, shippers, and processors, along with their supervisors and workers, in the most critical safety, health, human resources, and compliance issues.
“The reason I work for AgSafe is to help farmers farm,” said Gupton, the seventh generation to grow up on her family’s farm in near Monticello. “Farmers have so many things thrown at them on a daily basis – the weather, the market, government regulations, and so forth. We arm them with education and resources that help them farm and not get buried in paperwork.”
Gupton joined AgSafe five years ago when it began to expand beyond California, where it originated 31 years ago.
“There’s a significant need for what they do in the rest of the country,” she said. “That’s definitely been highlighted of late with the regulatory growth of the current administration.
“Kentucky farmers are lucky. We live in an ag-friendly state. Our (AgSafe’s) headquarters is in the most regulated state, and I work in one of the least regulated states. We don’t have the regulatory burden that other ag states have, and we work to continue to keep it that way.”
Gupton checked all the boxes in what AgSafe was looking for. She was hired as director of business services and industry relations before being promoted to second in command of the national organization.
“I had an interesting track to get (here),” she said. “I worked for a local non-profit for four years. Through a professional organization, I met the former president and CEO of AgSafe, and we became good friends.
“They (AgSafe) were growing, and she knew I was interested in a new opportunity. I grew up on a farm, I have a degree in human resources.”
Gupton, mother of two young girls, ages 4 and 7 months, works remotely from her Louisville home. She hosts webinars from her home office.
She will host a three-part series this month on hiring and onboarding, employee performance and discipline, and employee separation/termination. Click here for more information.
The webinar is free, funded by a $33,857 grant through the Southern Center for Extension Risk Management Education to teach labor compliance and best human resource practices.
AgSafe recently received another grant of more than $47,000 to partner with Murray State University assistant professor Dr. Kristie Guffey to provide stress management education for farmers in an effort to prevent suicide.