About Us
Agriculture: Transformed
The Appalachian AgriFood Cluster is located at the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center in Knoxville, Tennessee and managed by AgLaunch Engine, LLC. a for-profit small business supporting regionally tailored economic development approaches that leverage farmer-led agricultural innovation. The Cluster comprises 240 counties across Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, led by a steering team of representatives from across the region.
AgLaunch Engine is a subsidiary of the non-profit AgLaunch, which leverages its distributed network of farm incubators, entrepreneurial farmers, aligned capital partners, research consortia, technical consulting, and best-in-class accelerator programming to effectively challenge the status quo and thoughtfully create value for farmers and the communities they serve. The AgLaunch vision is a transformed regional agriculture and food economy centered around farmers, innovation, and prosperity. AgLaunch operates through 5 regional clusters located across the United States. These clusters uniquely tailor their offerings to meet the specific needs of their region, but leverage the existing AgLaunch infrastructure to maximize the impact. That infrastructure includes AgLaunch’s renowned AgLaunch365 accelerator program and farm-centric innovation model, access to funding and technical assistance for supply chain, value-added and innovation projects. Tools in development include Data Commons, a shared database to benefit network farmers and entrepreneurs, and the Open Market Consortium, an online market exchange for specialty crops to provide price and attribute transparency.
Our focus areas lay in specialty crops including new grains for beverage and food markets, regenerative and organic agriculture and carbon markets, new uses for forestry products, pasture raised cattle, local value-added products, farm-to-market with novel technologies, bioenergy, controlled environment agriculture, data & traceability, and climate resiliency.
The AgLaunch vision is a transformed regional agriculture and food economy centered around farmers, innovation, and prosperity
Our Region
Southern Appalachia
We support farmers, entrepreneurs, and innovators in the Southern Appalachian region, including 240 counties in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The Southern Appalachian Region Appalachian region’s agriculture industry is unique when compared to other regions around the country. In general, this region has small farms, often hilly and in small plots. The region produces a variety of specialty crops, cattle, forestry products, and a range of other niche products. Reliance on agricultural and food systems focused on commodity production can be a challenge for farmers as trade pressures and declining global commodity prices favor operations with a larger footprint in different climates. However, the region has the opportunity to capitalize on its strengths by focusing on areas where farmers and entrepreneurs can be competitive. We believe the Appalachian region is an open canvas for reimagining the industry because, by the nature of its geography, it cannot be the top producer of a commodity. Rather, we have the opportunity to be really good at the diverse supply chain of the future, one that focuses on local and regional food systems.
Team Aglaunch
Who We Are
Management Team
Rebecca Kaufman
Vice President of Regional Innovation Clusters
AgLaunch Engine, LLC
Katie Ellis
Lead, Appalachian AgriFood Innovation Cluster,
AgLaunch Engine, LLC
Tom Womack
Senior Advisor, Regional Innovation Cluster Network,
AgLaunch Engine, LLC
Jim Biggs
Executive Director,
Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (AgLaunch Program Partner)
Pete Nelson
President,
AgLaunch Initiative
Margaret Oldham
Vice President of Innovation,
AgLaunch Initiative
Sarah Varble, Ph.D.
Director of Entrepreneurship,
AgLaunch Initiative
Thomas Greenlee
Director of Farm Innovation,
AgLaunch Initiative
Steering Committee
Estes Gould Hughes
Director, Innovation and Talent,
Economic Development, Partnership of Alabama
Kusum Rathore, Ph.D.
Vice-President of Multi-Campus Office,
University of Tennessee Research Foundation
Paul Ulanch, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Crop Commercialization
Program, NC Biotech Center
Matt Bell
Director, SCLaunch,
South Carolina Research Authority
Michael Aikens
Director, Research & Economic Development,
Tennessee Technology University
Will Payne
Director, InvestSWVA
Alex Cate
Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, HudsonAlpha
Team Aglaunch
The AgLaunch Farm-Centric Open Innovation Model
AgLaunch is transforming the way that innovations in agriculture and food are brought to market by bridging the present and future to grow a more diverse and sustainable farm economy and provide healthy food for all. AgLaunch leverages its distributed network of farm incubators, entrepreneurial farmers, aligned capital partners, research consortia, technical consulting, and best-in-class accelerator programming to effectively challenge the status quo and thoughtfully create value for farmers and the communities they serve. The AgLaunch vision is a transformed regional agriculture and food economy centered around farmers, innovation, and prosperity.
Interested in Learning More
Fill out this form, and we’ll be in touch with you soon!
