Colbert, GA |
Where Moon Farms Country Market now stands in Madison County, Russ Moon’s great-grandmother once had her home. The road took it out in 1997, but the land itself has never left the family. As the fourth generation to farm this ground, Moon carries that history with him every day — and he’s fighting to make sure it doesn’t end with him.
“When you’re a farmer, agriculture is just in you. I want to see it thrive. I want to see the next generation come on and pass it on to them,” Moon said. “So much of what we do is looking forward to the next generation — and that’s so important to me, that I pass it on to my kids and hopefully they’re going to do it too.”
Over the course of his farming life, Moon has watched Georgia transform around him — and the pressure that comes with that growth is impossible to ignore.
“It’s the amount of people. The amount of people moving into this state, this area — it’s definitely growing. The traffic on the roads, the amount of people looking for houses — that’s what’s driving the development,” Moon said. “I know it’s coming, but the amount of people in this state has really grown over the last ten years.”
That growth has introduced new concerns beyond housing and development. Among the newest: the rise of massive data centers consuming enormous amounts of power and water in rural parts of the state.
“What’s the quality of water they’re producing? None of us really know the impact of the data centers,” Moon said. “In one sense, we all need them — but nobody wants one right here next to them. And that’s kind of where we’re at.”
Georgia has long been known as the number one state in which to do business — but for farmers, that growth comes with difficult questions. Every year, productive farmland disappears, replaced by neighborhoods, warehouses, and data centers. And once that land is paved over, it rarely comes back.
When asked why he doesn’t simply sell — take the money and walk away — Moon’s answer was immediate.
“My life’s not for sale. This is my passion. It was my grandparents’ passion, my father’s passion, and hopefully my kids’ passion. That’s not for sale right now — and I hope it’s never for sale,” he said.
Moon is a vocal supporter of the Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund, a program he believes is essential — but one he worries may already be falling behind the pace of development.
“We can have growth as we preserve as much farmland as we can — I think we’ve got to have both. You can’t stop growth, I get it, but we’ve got to preserve what we can when it comes to farmland,” Moon said. “We’re kind of behind the eight ball on that. We’re several years behind where we need to be because the growth is outpacing this program that we just started. I feel like we’re a few years behind, and hopefully we’re going to catch up.”
For Moon, the weight of what came before him and what comes after is never far from his mind. He thinks about his father and grandfather, the sacrifices they made, and the obligation he now carries.
“I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now without my father and my grandfather — and we’ve got to remember that and hopefully pass it on a lot better than we received it,” Moon said. “We are borrowing it from the next generation. Land prices are kind of outrunning what we can afford to buy now, so we just have to try to pay for what we’ve already purchased and maybe do things with fewer acres.”
As for what he hopes future grandchildren will see when they look out over this land one day, Moon’s answer speaks to something deeper than crop yields or commodity prices.
“I hope agriculture is just engraved in them, just like it is in me — that desire. Because it’s not easy,” Moon said. “It goes back to passion. It takes passion to get up every day and fight through the droughts and the low prices and the adversity that hits us — and it hits us quite often. It’s not just row crop farmers. It’s chicken farmers, cattle farmers. It’s all of us.”