Author Archives: John Holcomb

Georgia Hay Producers Face Challenges After Brutal 2024 | What to Expect in 2025

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Tifton, GA |

Spring has officially sprung here in Georgia which means hay fields and pastures across the state will be starting to flourish, signaling a new production year for forage producers. According to Lisa Baxter, State Forage Extension Specialist, it’s a sight many producers are excited to see after the terrible year they had in 2024.

“In short, 2024 was not the here for forages in not just Georgia, the whole southeast. We were way too wet in the spring and led to a lot of disease issues really early on that unfortunately, we don’t have chemical options for within the forage industry. Going into summer, we pivoted hard. We went way to dry for way too long for warm season perennial production. Had some easement later in the year through the tropical storms and hurricanes, but even then it was a lot of rain at one time, and then nothing for six plus weeks for a lot of areas. Those of them up at producers up in North Georgia lost a lot of stockpile potential in their fescue because that fall drought for them, where the hurricanes missed a lot of those areas, it just, it didn’t happen,” says Lisa Baxter, State Forage Specialist.

One huge and unexpected issue producers had this year was fall army worms, which were spotted in nearly every county in the state, which according to Baxter, really hurt producers’ bottom lines.

“Our insecticide costs, pastures, hay fields, every variety cultivar we have out there; it hit them all. So that was a much bigger expense going into our forages than most producers have ever had before,” says Baxter.

According to Baxter, unfortunately, due to last year’s issues, 2025 doesn’t bring much optimism, at least so far, as inputs, such as seed and fertilizer, are expected to remain high for producers.

“There are certain species and varieties that I’ve heard are going to be a little more limited on the seed side this year because of weather challenges out west, but that’s again, a wait and see kind of kind of game there. We just don’t know what the demand is for those products every year. With row crop prices being very high, I’m hearing a lot of pivots wanting to be put into forage production. So that, in my mind, is going to increase that demand beyond our typical producer base. Then on the input side, fertilizer, it’s expensive as always. I know it goes up and down, but there and we can’t cut it out, especially in a hayfield,” says Baxter.

According to Baxter, a big issue that’s followed producers into this year is the availability of hay, as stockpiles were diminished due to forage grazing either being limited or non-existent.

“There just wasn’t as much hay produced because of all of those challenges. If you had an area that you couldn’t do fall stockpile a lot of areas couldn’t get winter grazing in that put additional strain on those already limited hay reserves and coming into 2025, I’m hearing a lot of producers that have empty hay barns. They’re ready for summer to be here and it’s not here yet. So, our guidance through UGA extension would be we’ve got to manage that stocking right early, balance it with our forage availability and match our herd size accordingly,” says Baxter.

By: John Holcomb

Inside Georgia’s Student-Run Meat Processing Plant | A New Model for Ag Education & Food Security

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Gainesville, GA |

Some of the top agricultural leaders, not just in the state, but the entire country, were on hand to get a first-hand look at this new student run meat processing facility at the Hall County Agribusiness Center. It’s a brand-new space with top-of-the-line equipment that needless to say, left everyone very impressed.

“If we could just take this and multiply it across this country, there’d be a lot of young people that have a different appreciation for the food and how gets to the grocery store. When your children learn about it, they teach your parents about it. So, it’s really a fantastic facility. What a way to really let people start their life knowing where their food comes from and how valuable it is to them and how difficult sometimes it is to get it there,” says Zippy Duvall, President of American Farm Bureau.

That’s especially true with meat processing, as a lack of operations, especially in smaller communities, was the idea behind this three-year project.

“One of the things that we believe here locally is that we are in the middle of a crisis in terms of our protein supply, that it has become all multinational. And so, with some support of some key leaders in the state of Georgia and the usage of some Covid funding, we have brought a fully operational commercial processing plant that students and their teacher run here in Gainesville, Georgia,” says Will Schofield, Superintendent of Hall County Schools.

For the most part, this facility serves as a closed, self-sustainable operation as all the meat coming through is both locally sourced and consumed.

“We raise the animals in the community. We get our hogs from the University of Georgia. We process it here locally, and then it goes back into this community. We are the largest food supplier in the Hall County proper, which is a community of about two hundred and forty thousand people, but we serve twenty-five thousand meals a day in our local school food service programs. So, a lot of the ground beef, a lot of the pork will go right back into school food lunches. We also have sales for local individuals. We do custom work for local farmers. So, what we process here, ninety nine percent of it gets consumed in Hall County,” says Schofield.

However, the impact of this program will be felt far beyond the Hall County borders, as it will provide a much-needed boost to the agricultural workforce.

“Kids think they all have to go to college and get a four-year degree. And that’s wonderful. We need people to do that, but there’s so many opportunities out there, well-paying opportunities for people to go in different directions and do the work that this country has been developed on, and built on, work that you do with your hands and your brain. This is a good way to introduce kids into all the different opportunities in a job, careers in agriculture,” says Duvall.

“We’ve got a Board of Education, we’ve got a community that wants young people to know that agribusiness, at least in Georgia, especially in Hall County, where seventy percent of our GDP is agribusiness, that agribusiness, absolutely is an economic engine. And we better appreciate it because we all sit down at the table every night and we take advantage of the bounty that agribusiness produces for us,” says Schofield.

By: Damon Jones

Georgia Bill Aims to Protect Farmers’ Access to Crop Tools | Senate Bill 144 Explained

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Atlanta, GA |

Each and every day, farmers and producers across the country work to produce the food and fiber we all need and depend on – with tools they need and depend on, and thanks to lawmakers in Atlanta, those tools are one step closer to being protected by state law as Senate Bill 144 has passed through the General Assembly and is now headed to the Governor’s desk.

“It’s a labeling bill and we’re basically, we’ve got a failure to warn clause in there, and we’re just saying that the manufacturers of products could not put anything on the label other than what EPA allows them to put on the label. At the end of the day, the EPA is the final say so. They’re the ones that do the research on top of what the manufacturers are doing to make sure products are safe. So, it’s truly a labeling bill – the label is the law. The EPA is in control of that and the federal government. So we’re just stating that in the bill and it’s just a failure to warn clause and that the EPA is the final say so in that,” says Senator Sam Watson from Georgia’s 11th District.

Though the bill only addresses labels, it assures farmers they’ll continue to have vital access to technologies they depend on.

“Currently, there is only one manufacturer of glyphosate in the United States. So they’ve obviously had difficulties with this failure to warn claim, so when you start talking about food security, food safety, and farmers livelihoods; trait technology is an important tool that we have in our toolbox as farmers and we couldn’t farm without all of the trait technologies and the use of herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides in general,” says Watson.

Watson, who is a producer himself, says these tools are essential to their operations now more than ever, as rising costs require them to be as efficient as possible – something that wouldn’t be the case without those trait technologies.

“I’m more on the vegetable side, and we have to use a lot of hand labor. H-2A just went up another two dollars an hour and so we use herbicides to help control weeds in our crops. So it became an issue of, is this product going to be around for the future generations to use? And are we going to have this tool in the toolbox? If you go to your local hardware store or your local Home Depot or Lowe’s, I don’t think you’re going to find glyphosate on the shelf because it’s been removed from the shelf. That active ingredient has already been removed. So, that’s where the fear from agriculture came, that what else is going to come off the shelf?,” says Watson.

Beyond protecting American agriculture, Watson believes the bill also safeguards American manufacturing and ultimately national security.

“The Chinese manufacture a lot of these products and if we have to buy it from the Chinese to feed Americans and to stay in business, then we’re probably going to get it from the Chinese. When there’s a problem, how do you go after someone in another country? We want to make sure that we protect American manufacturing and especially American manufacturing of these products,” says Watson.

By: John Holcomb

Why U.S. Beef is Booming: Inside the Cattle Industry’s Record-Breaking Year

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Augusta, GA |

With the average American eating nearly sixty pounds of beef per year, the US ranks second per capita in worldwide consumption. Pair that with domestic prices reaching record levels in 2024, and confidence within the industry is at an all-time high.

“The optimism right now in the cattle industry is the best I’ve ever seen and I’m sixty-eight years old. So, we are in a really good time, really good markets. So, we have a good reason to be optimistic. The conditions are ripe for continued prosperity on cattle farms and also, and more importantly, conditions are right for consumers to continue to enjoy the finest protein product that’s available in the market today,” says James Vaughn, President of the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association.

That excellence is best exemplified by the rising demand for beef products despite that higher price tag.

“It absolutely speaks to the quality of the product. There’s just very little low-quality product anymore. As the cattle numbers have shrunk, the quality of the cattle, percentage wise has risen dramatically. The product that people find, whether you’re in a restaurant or in your grocery store, is exceptional these days,” says Vaughn.

However, with production expected to rise in the coming years, maintaining these types of prices will depend on opening up new markets for the cattlemen.

“That needs to be a high priority for producers. There are hoops you have to jump through sometimes to get product like in the EU or someplace, but they’re not that difficult. It’s a little learning curve. You figure out how to do it, and you keep moving products all over the world and creating demand for good American beef,” says Vaughn.

It’s why attending events like the annual Georgia Cattlemen’s Association Conference is essential as it keeps producers up to date on the latest issues affecting the industry.

“If you are a cattle producer yourself, you want to make money from it. So, staying on top of the latest trends is going to help you do that and also, staying engaged with legislative policies that will affect us helps us protect farmland and ensure that you can continue to produce cattle for years and generations to come,” says Caroline Waldrep, Events and Outreach Coordinator for the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association.

It’s a future that appears to be in good hands with the next generation showing increased interest in getting into the business.

“We are definitely shifting as a generation for sure into young people wanting to get back onto the farm. Wanting to either take over their grandparent’s farm or wanting to purchase farmland themselves. So, I think definitely, there’s a lot of optimism for youth and young people wanting to move into the cattle industry in 2025 and in the years to come,” says Waldrep.

With government policy affecting so much of what happens on these farms, becoming a member of this association has an obvious benefit.

“Strength in numbers for sure. I think the number one reason is definitely to protect cattle production for years to come. And if you have those numbers, the legislators definitely look at you as an ally and as an asset and want to protect your interests,” says Waldrep.

By: Damon Jones

Georgia Farmers Head to D.C. to Fight for Ag Policy Reform | Farm Bill, Labor & National Security

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Washington, D.C. |

From the moment they touched down in our nation’s capital, Georgia Farm Bureau legislative staff, Directors, and County Presidents got to work advocating for the ag industry – something GFB President, Tom McCall says is central to the organization’s mission, especially at a time with so much hanging in the balance for farmers and producers across the country.

“When they can hear from actual producers of some of the concerns that they have and what the Congress needs to be doing to help agriculture survive, not only in Georgia, especially in Georgia, but not only in Georgia, but the whole country, and get the point across that after military, food supply is the national security issue,” says Tom McCall, President of Georgia Farm Bureau.

“Main reason we’re here is to promote agriculture, talk about agriculture and what we’re facing as the state of Georgia and farmers. It’s very important for us to be up here communicating these things that we need to the people that might not get to see it every day. So, this has given us a platform to speak on behalf of the Georgia farmer,” says Brian Fleming, President of Hart County Farm Bureau.

As mentioned, the trip couldn’t have come at a better time, as producers across Georgia and the nation are struggling as a host of ag related issues continue to threaten their livelihoods; the two most pressing concerns being labor and the desperate need for an updated farm bill.

“Obviously, number one is this farm bill. We’ve been rolling on the same farm bill for seven years now. 2018 feels ancient, so that farm bill is basically an antique now. We need to see modernized farm programs, whether it’s reference prices, crop insurance products or changes to credit and additional funds to conservation Title. We need to see those improvements, ” says Ben Parker, National Affairs Coordinator.

“Number two, especially for the state of Georgia, is we’ve got to address this labor issue. It is far too costly, nothing makes sense and where we’re seeing these annual AEWR rates increase at seemingly random points. Seven and a half percent increase here. Fourteen percent increase here, and then this last year, we saw a nine and a half percent increase to over sixteen dollars an hour. I think finally, people are starting to see that these random increases in wage rates are only detrimental to ag and not just AG in Georgia, but poses national security risk for everyone that uses it,” says Parker.

Though they may not see the direct impact of this trip right away, Fleming says he believes the trip will pay dividends in the long run – and will hopefully make an impact back home on the farm.

“You might not see it right away, but getting what we need out, the support that we need and being able to talk to these people that we don’t need to see every day and actually see them take interest in it and understand what we’re saying that’s going on, it makes a big difference, and I think in the long run, we will see the benefits and things like this back at home,” says Fleming.

By: John Holcomb

Empowering Young Entrepreneurs: How Georgia FLEX is Shaping Future Business Leaders!

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Fitzgerald, GA |

It’s been said that if there is no struggle, there is no progress. It’s a motto best exemplified by those looking to start their own business as it takes plenty of patience, determination and support in order to succeed. And the latter is exactly what the Georgia FLEX program is looking to provide for high school students hoping to take that next step.

“As the students start their entrepreneurial journey, the community rallies around them by providing them mentors from the business community, which is really different than reading about how to run a business from a book, right? I think anybody who’s run a business can attest to that; that you just never know what each day is going to hold. So, we try to match the students with businesses that are similar or really any businessperson can give them great feedback about their business and kind of share their experience with them and encourage the students,” says Melissa Dark, Executive Director of Georgia FLEX.

Giving these young entrepreneurs a community to fall back on for advice and inspiration provides an invaluable tool during the difficult times.

“You definitely can’t do it alone. We say all the time, it takes a village, and it truly does take a village in entrepreneurship. I’m so grateful for the FLEX program and the community that it makes. So, not only do we have connections all across the state, but we also have these connections with other student entrepreneurs who are going through the same experience and it’s great to be able to build that network and be able to have supporters and know who you can get to when you have questions,” says Chloe Paulk, Owner of Cake It with Chloe.

With the focus of this program centered around rural areas of the state, it benefits not just the students and their businesses, but also the long-term health of their communities.

“It works especially well in rural communities who are trying to really create some stickiness with their students and to keep them in their community, to start and grow their own businesses. It’s also great because those communities typically only one have one or two school systems, so everybody can rally around those students,” says Dark.

That support, along with state and local competitions offering thousands of dollars’ worth of prize money, could be the push students need to chase their dreams.

“The FLEX program is great if you’re even thinking about entrepreneurship, and it’s great because it encourages you to take the leap as a student. So, you don’t have to wait until you’ve got it figured out or you’re out of high school or college. You can take the leap as a high school student, and we’re going to provide facilitated steps to help you make your dream turn into a business,” says Paulk.

“When you, as any entrepreneur I they waited until it was perfect or they had everything figured out, they probably would have never started their business. So, we encourage students to really just jump in and get started. We encourage them to fail fast, fail often and always fail forward. So, every time you have a failure, that’s just taught you one way that something doesn’t work. So, just find the next way,” says Dark.

And learning through experience is the most valuable way to gain those skills needed to thrive.

“The FLEX program was pivotal in me running my business. Not only did it teach me skills like learning how to keep track of my finances, learning how to market my business, learning how to network with people in the community, but it also made me fall in love with entrepreneurship and my business in general,” says Paulk.

By: Damon Jones

The Hidden Work Behind Growing the Perfect Christmas Tree | Inside Berry’s Tree Farm

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Covington, GA |

Come November and December, this Christmas tree farm will be bustling with people searching for the perfect tree for their home. However, what most don’t realize is the amount of time and energy that goes into growing them – a process that, according to Owner Chuck Berry, takes several years.

“When most people think of a Christmas tree farm, they just think of it at Christmas time. November and December are fun months and then after Christmas, the work begins. It’s just like any other crop; you have to plant it, you have to maintain it, and it takes, probably about five years for these trees behind us to make mature age where they’re ready for cutting. So, today we’re planting trees, we try to do that in January and February, try to get them in the ground and get them established before the drier months come. So, we’ll plant about thirty-five hundred this year, about four different varieties, and it takes them anywhere from four to six years to mature,” says Chuck Berry, Owner of Berry’s Tree Farm.

The process, which you can see here, is a methodical one, which Berry says helps them better maintain the trees and their farm, as each crop is carefully measured and spaced out.

“As you can see behind me, the trees are almost in straight rows and that’s just basically for maintenance purposes. We plant everything on an eight foot square, so you’ve got an eight foot row both ways. It just makes it look more uniform; easier to maintain with the tractor. We plant everything basically like a crop. Some farms might go back in between big trees and plant little trees; we plant everything the same size, so we push up stumps with the loader, clean the field, plow the field. It’s like planting corn or cotton, just we don’t get corn or cotton this year; we’ve got to wait five or six years for it to produce a Christmas tree,” says Berry.

As you can see, other than actually clearing the land, they do everything by hand rather than with machines, which Berry says helps them grow a better product.

“We plant everything by hand. I mentioned that we plan on eight foot squares, we don’t plant with a machine. We just get a better product if we can manually dig the holes. It looks like a daunting task, but with a good crew and good weather, we can plant close to two thousand trees in a day. Yes, we’re digging them by hand with hole diggers, but the land is prepared, and it doesn’t take much to dig a hole big enough to put a gallon pot in. So, it just pays dividends later on when everything’s in straight rows and we’ve actually put it in the ground one at the time,” says Berry.

According to Berry, once they get the trees in the ground, the hard part is out of the way, as he says Christmas trees are generally low maintenance.

“They pretty much hold their own once we get them planted as long as we’ve got ample rainfall in the Spring, then they do good. Most of the trees, drought doesn’t affect them very much. Most of the time they just go into a dormant stage. They don’t die, but you don’t get any growth. So, once these trees are planted, outside of maintaining with trimming or cutting grass, or spraying fungicide, once the stakes are there and they’re tied, they’re ready to go. So, it takes a lot of work, but to say that they’re high maintenance is probably not the case. The biggest thing to make a Christmas tree, a Christmas tree is the trimming. If we didn’t trim them twice a year, they would basically just look like an ornamental bush. It takes that trimming to make that shape and also make them thicker. So the more you trim, the thicker they get,” says Berry.

By: John Holcomb

Dairy Industry 2025: Challenges & Optimism for Farmers

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Perry, Ga |

It’s been quite the roller coaster for dairy producers over the past few years as fluctuating prices and input costs have resulted in quite a bit of uncertainty. However, things are currently trending upward after a promising 2024.

“In 2022, you had some supply and demand. You had increased demand for milk. There’s not that supply to go with it. Prices went up, but like with everything else, with inflation, those input costs skyrocketed with it. So, you didn’t really have a margin. You just had higher prices for everything. Supply and demand will reverse itself. You get enough supply; demand goes back down. Price goes back down. But those input costs didn’t come with it. So, ’23 you saw the margins shrink or disappear completely. ’24 you finally had those feed costs, labor, fuel, some of these things the farmers really can’t control come back down to where the milk price was and demand had been relatively stable,” says Bryce Trotter, Executive Director of the GA Milk Producers.

With nearly twenty percent of all US milk products being exported, a recent trade war with Canada and Mexico is a point of concern as it has the potential to reduce that demand.

“Is the export market going to stay where it is? We don’t export a lot of milk products in the southeast. But the dairy economy nationwide kind of feeds off of itself. So, if those export markets go away, you got excess supply of milk. That all kind of trickles back down and affects the demand, which will affect the price for milk. So, export markets and what’s going on with tariffs and trade policy is going to a big thing that our farmers are going to watch,” says Trotter.

They will also be keeping a close watch on the current avian influenza outbreak that has found its way into more than 900 dairy herds across seventeen different states.

“Our producers are keeping an eye on it. I wouldn’t say that anyone is worried, but we’re paying attention and that’s what we should be doing. We’re in constant communication with the Department of Agriculture here in Georgia to come up with a plan if it does come to the Southeast. But our farmers are just keeping an eye on it, doing what they can on their farm to beef up biosecurity and prepare,” says Trotter.

The health of the industry will also depend on a number of dairy operations bouncing back from the storms that swept across southeast Georgia late last year.

“Not only did the storms come through during harvest season, but our harvest season is every day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. So, a lot of the impacts that we see aren’t just the day of and the day after the storm, but those effects on the cows and their milk production, the stress from the storm, you can feel that for weeks afterwards, decreased milk production,” says Trotter.

In spite of some of these issues and hardships within the industry, 2025 is shaping up to be a promising year for producers thanks in large part to the rising number of consumers around the region.

“We’re seeing a trend here in the Southeast where a lot more people are drinking fluid milk which is what we produce, especially whole milk. So, we’re quietly optimistic for a good year for dairy farmers and we’re just happy to see that trend in fluid milk consumption and dairy consumption overall continue to tick up,” says Trotter.

By: Damon Jones

Rising from the Ashes: Livestock Exhibitors Rebuild After Devastating Barn Fire

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Perry, GA |

Last Winter, these livestock exhibitors’ lives were drastically changed, as their school’s barn burned down, taking their animals and months of hard work, time, and energy along with it. It was a moment that can only be described as devastating, however, now just over a year later, they’ve rebounded, put in the work, and are competing at the show they missed last year.

“It burnt down just exactly two weeks before Perry. So, we had went in October and we kind of got to see that side of things, but it was very sad to get to see your animal grow, and you would put so much time and effort into it, and you were working up to this point. And then for you not to be able to go through with it, and then you got to watch everybody still go and compete without you; it was definitely sad, and you kind of just felt let down, like all you had done was kind of to waste, but definitely this year has been nice to get back in the swing of things, and I’ve been able to learn from it that you can still move on, you can still work better this next year, and it’s gonna be okay,” says Kate Bearden, Southeast Whitfield Livestock Exhibitor.

This year, their show team is significantly smaller, as only a handful were able to house their animals at their homes, which of course, as Bearden says, presented new challenges.

“It definitely has impacted us since it’s burnt down, because you’re not able to have as big of a show team. It’s nice whenever you have the convenience of sharing the stands and the blowers at the school. But once it burnt and it’s at you’re at your house, you don’t have all those things at your access and you’re not able to have as many members, because a lot of the kids rely on the school to provide for the things that they need,” says Bearden.

Though the incident was no doubt a tragedy, the team turned it into an opportunity – one that demonstrates passion, resilience, and determination, especially when you have a great support system.

“It doesn’t matter whether we have a barn at the school. It doesn’t matter whether our group’s small or big, we’re still able to compete. We’re still able to do good and be able to come to Perry. I still was able to work with my goat at my house. I was able to send pictures back and forth to my ag teachers, and they were still able to give me input, even though it wasn’t in person. They were still able to say, ‘hey, you should brace it this way. You need to work with walking it and here’s just a few tips.” So I was able to move past whether the barn was there or not,” says Bearden.

“Our kids are tough, and their parents are tough, and their families are tough, and they work hard. And so, obviously when that happened, it took some time to grieve and to look back and reflect, but these students that decided to take that adversity and learn from it. And so, they decided, I’m not going to let something that frankly, they can’t control hold them down. So, they decided we’re going to house our animals at home. We’re still going to work hard, and we’re going to do what we love to do and that’s show livestock. And essentially, I think that comes back full circle with exactly why we do this, exactly why our students show livestock. They show livestock to learn how to handle adversity, to work hard and work with one another to get through issues that might occur,” Logan Hunter, Agriculture Teacher at Southeast Whitfield High School.

By: John Holcomb

Labor Shortages & Rising Costs: Can the H-2A Program Save U.S. Farmers?

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Atlanta, GA |

Over the next few months some of Georgia’s signature fruits and vegetables like peaches, onions and blueberries, will all be ready to come out of the field. And in order to maximize both quality and quantity, it’s essential to have a reliable workforce.

“You have to have enough labor there on the busiest day to get them harvested, get them packed. This is timely work. It’s so timely to have harvest at the right days. So, we’re always very conscious. That’s our number one issue behind probably weather is labor availability,” says Robert Dickey, Chairman of the Georgia House Agriculture Committee.

That’s where the H2A program comes in, as it helps supplement a small number of domestic workers, while also complying with stronger immigration policies.

“If we’re going to continue to feed America with American grown crops, vegetables, and fruits, we got to have a labor force. Unfortunately, we don’t have a domestic force to do that. And that is why we have transitioned to this H2A program. You see other industries desperately wanting that, with our shortage of labor in this country. And so, this has been a good program for us. It has kept us all one hundred percent legal,” says Dickey.

Despite their workers being documented, many Georgia farmers are hoping there can still be some compromise on the recent immigration crackdown.

“I hope the administration can look at the history of some of our workers from whatever industry they’re in, in this state who have been here for many, many years and contributed to the economy and have families here, maybe even homes and things. Maybe give them some pathway to citizenship, some legal status so they can continue working and helping our industries,” says Dickey.

Labor shortages aren’t the only concern, as growers have seen wages increase exponentially over the past few years, which has opened the door for more foreign competition.

“So far, we haven’t had any real issues, a few little hiccups but, that program has worked well. I hope it’s no changes to it other than trying to get some costs back in line. Those costs for us have gone up over thirty or forty percent in the last two or three years and just raising our grower cost to not be competitive with foreign imports. So, that’s one of our big concerns,” says Dickey.

And it’s a concern that will likely continue into the future, unless some changes are made to the program.

“We don’t have that labor and don’t have it at a competitive rate, it’s just going to make foreign imports from Mexico, Chile, and South America much more available to domestic grocery stores. There’s going to be less costs and our industry will just really go away if we don’t do something to stem it,” says Dickey.

By: Damon Jones