The University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is a public agricultural college at the University of Kentucky. The college was renamed the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment on July 1, 2013. The name change incorporates the college's expanded role that occurred with the merger of the College of Human Environmental Sciences into the College of Agriculture. The college's research, teaching and outreach programs encompass farms, forests, food, fiber, families and communities. On May 25, 2023, the college announced a $100-million gift from late University of Kentucky alum and former trustee Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton. The college subsequently announced it would be renamed the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment pending approval from the UK Board of Trustees. As of June 16, 2023, the college is officially renamed the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
The University of Kentucky (UK), a land-grant university, has had agricultural education since the university's founding in 1865. Originally established by the Commonwealth of Kentucky as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of the newly created Kentucky University. The Kentucky University had been granted substantial initial funding from the federal government through the Morrill Land-Grant Act. In 1878 the state separated the Agricultural and Mechanical College from Kentucky University and the next year founded the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky under the leadership of James Kennedy Patterson. In 1908 the college was renamed State University, Lexington, Kentucky and in 1916, when the State University was renamed the University of Kentucky, the College of Agriculture remained a central point of identity for the institution across the state.