Tag Archives: Georgia Agriculture

UGA Economist Explains Why Beef Prices Are High — and Why New Imports Are Worrying Georgia Cattle Producers

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Athens, GA |

The price of beef at the grocery store has been a headline for months — and while consumers are feeling it in their wallets, the story behind those prices runs much deeper than simple supply and demand. It starts with the cattle cycle, and a combination of economic and environmental pressures that have been building for years.

“Usually, we follow the cattle cycle about every ten to fourteen years. We hit periods where we have low profitability, and in that situation, producers look to try to increase their revenues — and by doing so, they’re liquidating some of their herd,” said Will Secor, Extension Livestock Economist with the University of Georgia. “We’ve also seen significant drought throughout much of the U.S., particularly in the Central Plains, and the Southeast has certainly had its own drought over the past number of years. As we don’t have those forage resources available, we reduce the number of cattle. Those different combinations are creating a situation where we have fewer head of cattle.”

HIGH PRICES, LONG OVERDUE

Fewer cattle means tighter supply — and tighter supply has pushed beef prices higher. But Secor says it isn’t just a supply story. Consumer demand has been equally powerful in driving what people pay at the meat counter. For cattle producers, those higher prices have been a long-awaited reward — the payoff after years of drought, low margins, and difficult herd decisions. Many were beginning to reinvest and rebuild.

Then came the announcement of new beef imports — and with it, uncertainty at exactly the wrong point in the cycle.

“If a producer is thinking about where they were last year versus where they are today, they’re probably thinking: the supply fundamentals in the U.S. haven’t changed, but we’ve certainly seen prices start to slide. What’s going on?” Secor said. “Part of it is macroeconomic and policy uncertainty — and that uncertainty plays into the decision process of retention. Uncertainty hurts not necessarily as much today, but when you’re thinking about making plans for the future. That’s going to impact their expansion decisions.”

IMPORTS AREN’T NEW — BUT THE TIMING IS A CONCERN

Beef imports are nothing new to the U.S. market, but Secor says the downstream impact on cattle prices is a legitimate concern for producers who were just beginning to see the rewards of a tightened market.

“We’ve been importing beef for a long time. A lot of times it’s lean beef or beef trimmings, so that’s going to go to things like ground beef — and a lot of times, that ground beef isn’t going directly to U.S. consumers at retail. It might be going through fast food restaurants and other food service locations,” Secor said. “So it isn’t necessarily going to have a huge impact at the retail level, but it could overall from a price-of-beef standpoint.”

For Georgia’s cattle producers, the question now is whether the current moment of uncertainty slows the expansion cycle before it ever really gets started — a familiar frustration for an industry that has grown accustomed to being tested just when things start to look up.

By: John Holcomb

2026 Georgia Peanut Tour Takes Attendees Behind the Scenes From Field to Market

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Sylvania, GA |

It’s officially harvest season for peanut growers in Georgia — but pulling them out of the ground is only the first of many steps in getting them to market. The 2026 Georgia Peanut Tour took attendees through the entire process, giving them an appreciation for just how much work goes into a crop farmers take for granted far too often.

“I think that farmers in particular are proud of the job that we do. And it’s kind of cool to highlight that and show what functional infrastructure for raising peanuts here in Georgia looks like,” said Donald Chase, Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

FROM THE FIELD TO THE BUYING POINT

Among the stops on the tour was Sylvania Peanut Company — a local buying point that plays a key role in preparing the crop for shipping after harvest. It’s here that peanuts coming in from surrounding farms are graded, dried, and stored before heading to processing facilities and eventually the grocery shelf.

“The peanuts come in from the field. We haul most of them in here. Years ago it was primarily a farm operation, but now we’re primarily a semi facility. We still have a few small growers that grow and bring their peanuts here,” said Joe Bodiford of Sylvania Peanut Company. “When they come on this yard, we find out what the moisture is. If it’s not at the moisture we need, we go ahead and get a grade on it, determine the value for the customer, and get them where they need to be. If they don’t meet those thresholds, we’ll go ahead and either ship them out or put them in our warehouses.”

WHAT MOST PEOPLE NEVER SEE

Getting an up-close look at the grading, drying, and storing process gave tour attendees a chance to experience just how much work goes on before the crop ever reaches a store shelf.

“To help you understand all the things that go into getting a good, quality peanut to market — the ultimate market is in the grocery store — we want to do our part here in doing a good job, and a better job as time goes on,” Bodiford said. “I hope they get a little sense of the amount of work it takes to get a good, quality peanut to market. Most people won’t see the peanut butter jar or the peanut snack bar or something like that and think about where it starts. But this is where it all starts.”

RESEARCH, MARKETING, AND A GLOBAL INDUSTRY

Along the way, attendees also heard about research, marketing, and even the international side of why peanuts remain such a significant commodity for the state of Georgia.

“We do a lot out in the field — digging and then waiting on harvest, and then the logistics of getting that to a buying point and then the buying point shipping some off,” Chase said. “It’s a yearlong process, really.”

A FULL CIRCLE MOMENT

As the three-day tour wrapped up, the key takeaway was a deeper appreciation for what it takes to produce a quality, safe food supply — and the role Georgia’s peanut industry plays in feeding the country.

“For me, it’s about understanding the integral part that agriculture and specifically peanut agriculture plays in rural Georgia,” Chase said. “When you think about the products that come from this — how delicious they are — hopefully it will bring that full circle to everyone who attended.”

For Georgia’s peanut growers, harvest season is the payoff for a year’s worth of work — and tours like this one are a reminder that the journey from field to shelf is far longer and more complex than the jar on any grocery store shelf would suggest.

By: Damon Jones

Ison’s Nursery and Vineyard Has Been Growing Muscadines in Georgia Since 1934 — and Business Is Booming

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Brooks, GA |

Among the rows of vines stretching across forty acres in Brooks lies a family story that spans generations. Founded in 1934 when the first plant went into the ground, Ison’s Nursery and Vineyard is now the largest and oldest grower of muscadine vines in the country — a distinction owner Greg Ison takes quiet pride in carrying forward.

“My grandfather started growing a few muscadine plants on the side for family and friends. Then in the 1960s, my father thought there was an opportunity to commercially grow muscadine vines and sell them all over the country — so he started growing them, and we began shipping them all over the Southeast,” Ison said. “We’re proud to continue that tradition today.”

EIGHTEEN MONTHS BEFORE A VINE LEAVES THE FARM

A lot of time and careful work goes into cultivating the more than thirty different varieties of muscadine vines offered by Ison’s — long before a single plant is ready to ship.

“It’s an eighteen-month process on the plants. We take cuttings in the summer months, propagate them, place them in a one-gallon container, and grow them out for an additional year,” Ison said. “Most planting is done during October through April, but depending on where you are — South Georgia, Alabama, Florida — you can plant any month of the year.”

A FRUIT BUILT FOR THE SOUTH

As for the fruit itself, muscadines have a natural advantage in the Georgia climate — one that makes them remarkably forgiving for growers of any experience level.

“Muscadine fruiting plants are one of the easiest plants to grow. They’re very forgiving,” Ison said. “And one of the great things about muscadines is they bloom so late — mid to late May, early June — that we never run the risk of catching a late frost on the blooms. So they will always have a crop on them.”

HEAT AND HARVEST DON’T MIX WELL

Harvest, however, has brought its own set of challenges this season — particularly during the prolonged heat and drought that have defined much of the summer.

“Our guys will go from picking twenty pounds an hour to as much as a hundred pounds an hour depending on the season, but it is very labor intensive. When you’re doing fresh market sales like we do, you have to pick by hand,” Ison said. “The challenge has been that we’ve been extremely hot and extremely dry — we have not turned off our drip irrigation systems in the vineyards for over a month. We’ve been pulling the guys out of the fields sometimes at two-thirty or three o’clock in the afternoon just to keep them out of that heat.”

SHIPPED STRAIGHT TO YOUR DOOR

Once the muscadines are off the vine, they don’t stay on the shelf for long. Ison’s sells their fruit four different ways — including a popular roadside stand and nationwide shipping for former Southerners who miss the taste of home.

“We actually ship fruit all over the United States to a lot of people who lived in the South and no longer do, but want to enjoy muscadines. We’ll ship them second-day air — and we ship a lot of muscadines to people who have never had them before,” Ison said.

For Ison’s Nursery and Vineyard, ninety-plus years of growth have been built on something simple: a belief that the muscadine, Georgia’s own southern delicacy, is worth sharing with the rest of the country — one vine and one shipment at a time.

By: Damon Jones

Georgia Pecan Growers Face Relentless Scab Pressure and Helene Recovery at 2026 Fall Field Day

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Leesburg, GA |

The Georgia Pecan Growers Association’s Fall Field Day brought producers and researchers together in Leesburg recently for an up-close look at the challenges and management strategies shaping this year’s crop. For growers who can see the research in person — and then take it home to apply in their own orchards — events like this one carry real weight.

“Field days like this are very important because they separate how you process information from what you may read in a book or see on a screen to being able to see it visually,” said Andrew Sawyer, Southeast Area Pecan Agent with UGA Extension. “When people get out here in the orchard, they’re able to put their eyes on it — and it allows them to process that information differently. For the most part, they always respond positively.”

SCAB PRESSURE HAS BEEN RELENTLESS

There was plenty to see this season. Lenny Wells, Extension Pecan Specialist for the University of Georgia, says heavy summer rainfall has made disease management one of the defining battles of 2026 — particularly in southwest Georgia, where scab pressure has been relentless.

“We’ve had a lot of scab pressure, especially in southwest Georgia. As you get over into East Georgia, it’s been a little drier, so they haven’t had as many of the scab issues we’ve had here,” Wells said. “But anytime we get a lot of rain like we have this summer, it makes controlling scab — which is of course our biggest problem — an even bigger challenge. Frequent rains make it hard to get out in the field to spray, and when you do get out there, a lot of times it may get washed off that afternoon. So it just keeps the scab continuously going.”

MORE RAIN MEANS MORE COST

That disease pressure doesn’t just threaten yield — it hits the bottom line directly, driving up one of the most significant costs pecan growers already face.

“The cost of fungicide and applying those fungicides is one of the biggest costs we have in growing pecans. When it’s raining more often, you have to spray more often — and that drives costs way up,” Wells said. “That’s one reason we recommend trying to plant varieties that have a decent level of scab resistance, so that you don’t have to spray as often.”

HELENE RECOVERY ON TRACK

On top of the scab challenge, many Georgia pecan growers are still working through the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. But Wells says the good news is that the recovery cycle is playing out about as expected — and for growers in East Georgia, this year is bringing some much-needed relief.

“Normally what we see after a hurricane or a storm like Helene is that the year after the storm, the trees have been under a great deal of stress and aren’t really going to put on much of a crop. Then the following year, they’ll put that crop on again — and it’s a pretty decent crop,” Wells said. “That’s kind of where we are in the cycle. This year, the crop in East Georgia and throughout the state looks pretty good. That’s a blessing, certainly for those guys in East Georgia who have lost so much.”

For Georgia’s pecan producers, the field day served as a timely reminder that research, variety selection, and staying connected to the work happening in the orchard are often the difference between a manageable season and a costly one.

By: John Holcomb

UGA Cotton and Peanut Field Day Gives Georgia Growers a Front-Row Look at the Latest Research

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Tifton, GA |

Georgia is one of the most agriculturally diverse states in the country, but when it comes to row crops, cotton and peanuts remain king — with more than six thousand farms combined dedicated to the two. That’s why researchers invest so heavily in both, and why the annual UGA Cotton and Peanut Field Day in Tifton draws growers from across the state looking for an edge heading into harvest.

“We’re very pleased and grateful that we get the support we do from the commodity commissions. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be doing this field day or the research we’re doing,” said Scott Monfort, Peanut Agronomist with UGA Extension. “It’s the growers of the state who help support this — and this is our time to give back, express our gratitude, and talk directly to growers about what’s going on with our research.”

ALL ABOUT EFFICIENCY

Beyond an up-close look at the newest technologies, the field day gives producers a rare chance to talk face-to-face with the researchers behind the work. And the top issue on everyone’s mind is the same: efficiency.

“This is an opportunity for cotton and peanut farmers to see the research the peanut and cotton teams are conducting each and every year. Our main goal is to improve profitability and sustainability — but it’s a chance to actually see it happening in the field,” said Phillip Roberts, Extension Entomologist with UGA. “At the end of the day, it’s all about making the right decision for a return on that input. A lot of what we do here is try to understand the efficiency of each and every input we make in a cotton crop.”

COTTON JASSID LESS OF A THREAT IN 2026

One of the biggest concerns heading into this season was the cotton jassid — a pest that caught growers and researchers off guard in 2025. This year, the story is considerably more encouraging.

“If we look at cotton jassid 2026 versus 2025, we’re in a much better place. A couple of reasons for that: number one, we learned about the jassid. Growers learned how to manage it — so we were ready,” Roberts said. “Last year we were figuring out management day by day. But the other good news is jassid populations just aren’t as high this year.”

THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT PEANUT VARIETY

On the peanut side, growers are coming off a record-breaking year for production — but researchers aren’t slowing down. Finding the next standout variety is a process that plays out over years, not seasons, as the team works to identify genetics that can hold up across the wide range of conditions Georgia growers face.

“When you’re doing on-farm testing, you’ve opened the door to a lot of environmental situations and different agronomic practices from grower to grower. Management styles differ. So we’re looking for a variety that can be stable across all those situations,” Monfort said. “That’s one of the reasons we haven’t replaced zero-six-G yet. We’re getting closer — but it’s taken us ten to fifteen years to try and find one.”

For Georgia’s cotton and peanut producers, the field day serves as an annual reminder that the research happening in Tifton’s test plots today is what ends up making a difference in their fields tomorrow.

By: Damon Jones

Georgia Ag Labor Forum Pushes for H-2A Reform as Fruit and Vegetable Growers Reach a Breaking Point

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Tifton, GA |

The Georgia Ag Labor Forum brought together growers, federal agencies, and agricultural organizations to work through the complexities of the H-2A guest worker program — a program that has become a lifeline for Georgia’s fresh fruit and vegetable industry, but one that many producers say is long overdue for reform.

“H-2A has become such a critical part of our industry. Forty to fifty percent of our costs are normally in labor when we’re talking about fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Chris Butts, Executive Vice President of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. “Across the industry, more and more of our growers are having to utilize the H-2A program. This conference brings everybody together — from the producer side, but also from the regulatory and governmental side — and we all get in the room and talk through it. It is a very complicated and complex program, but the forum offers the opportunity for growers and other organizations to hear from the folks administering these programs and learn how we can stay on the right side of compliance.”

NOT A CHOICE — A NECESSITY

The reliance on guest worker programs isn’t by preference. Butts says the domestic workforce simply isn’t applying for farm labor jobs, leaving growers with no viable alternative.

“When we try to recruit domestic workers to come do fruit and vegetable work on the farm, we don’t get people applying for those jobs. It’s hot, it’s dirty, it’s bending over, it’s lifting heavy weight over and over again — and we just don’t have domestic workers that apply,” Butts said. “The H-2A program is critical. Without it, there would not be fruit and vegetable production here in the state of Georgia.”

A PROGRAM IN NEED OF REFORM

Critical as H-2A is, it’s anything but simple to navigate. A worker going through the program can come into contact with up to seven different federal agencies — and the rules have shifted with each administration, creating a level of unpredictability that makes long-term planning nearly impossible for producers.

Butts says a new piece of legislation known as the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act represents the best opportunity in a generation to change that.

“We’re twenty-five years since we’ve had any kind of meaningful reform to ag labor. This bill represents the best chance the industry has had in a long time to bring forth some of that meaningful reform,” Butts said. “It’s really important that the industry remains together and speaks with one voice. This is a really important bill from the standpoint of making the program easier to use, more affordable to use, and frankly, more predictable — so that a grower can know and predict what his labor costs may be in the next two to three years without seeing huge swings in wages one way or the other. It’s not fair to the worker and it’s not fair to the employer. We need some stability there.”

REFORM REQUIRES FARMER VOICES

But stability and reform will only come if farmers are willing to engage in the process — and that, according to one national agricultural labor leader, is where the industry has historically fallen short.

“The future of H-2A and the future of agriculture’s success is really in the hands of the audience,” said John Hollay, President and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. “The folks up on the stage are trying to do what they can, but it’s really going to take different tactics and different kinds of engagement from the actual farmer. One of the things we struggle with in agriculture is that Americans trust farmers more than anyone — polls continue to put that out there — but farmers often aren’t willing to speak out and utilize the trust they’ve earned. Reform isn’t going to be easy, but if we all work together, we can actually get it done.”

For Georgia’s fruit and vegetable growers, the message from Tifton was clear: the program they depend on needs fixing, the legislation to fix it exists, and the window to act on it is now.

By: John Holcomb

The Boyd Brothers Are Farming the Same Land Their Family Has Worked for Six Generations

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Screven County |

Ask Wilson, Waylon, and Weston Boyd who’s in charge, and nobody’s giving a straight answer — and that, it turns out, tells you just about everything you need to know about how this family operates. Spend a little time with the three brothers and what stands out isn’t what makes them different. It’s what keeps them together.

“When you do something good, you want to tell your family — because they were there with you, and they’re proud of you just the same as you’re proud of them,” said Weston Boyd. “I think that’s probably one of the most special things about us working together. When we do bad or when we do good, the first person you want to tell is your family — and hey, they’re right there with you. That’s special.”

WINNING TOGETHER, LOSING TOGETHER

For the Boyd brothers, farming as a family isn’t just a matter of convenience — it changes how they approach the work itself.

“It means a lot more because you win together and you lose together. You try a lot harder when you know who you’re working for and who you’re working with,” said Waylon Boyd.

That shared investment also translates into day-to-day efficiency. After decades of watching each other grow up on the same land, the brothers have developed an understanding that can’t be replicated with any other crew.

“We’re more efficient because we know exactly how each other works. We don’t have to go through the learning process of figuring out how to work better with each other,” said Wilson Boyd. “He’s twenty-two and he’s twenty-four, and I’ve known them every day of their lives. We know exactly how each person ticks and how to make each one of us more efficient — and how to make each other happy, I guess is the word.”

THEY FIGHT LIKE BROTHERS — BECAUSE THEY ARE

That closeness doesn’t mean things are always smooth. The brothers are quick to admit that working together this closely means disagreements come with the territory — sometimes loudly. But in the Boyd family, a fight in the field doesn’t follow them inside.

“We’ll leave it all out there, but let me tell you — we’ll take it to plow dirt. We’ll fight it out for a second, give it a little while, and we’ll be back good. We can fight like cats and dogs and be back to brothers in a snap,” Waylon said. “We’re all struggling, we all want the same goal, and hey, that’s frustrating sometimes. But everything works out. We have a good time doing it.”

“It’s really never a mad like you’re gonna quit,” added Weston. “It’s just a mad like, ‘Man, let me hit him real quick and then we’ll be done with it.’ And I think that’s kind of the special part of our relationship that you don’t always get to see.”

SIXTH GENERATION ON THE SAME DIRT

Long before these three were making decisions, they were watching — watching their dad, their uncle, and the generations before them — learning not only how to farm, but how to farm as a family. That foundation goes deeper than any of them can fully trace.

“We’re the sixth generation on this same dirt. There’s a lot of sweat from a lot of people we’ve never even known that’s been here fighting for this,” Wilson said. “It’s just something you can’t let go when you’ve been given it — because not everybody gets this opportunity. But along with this opportunity comes a lot of work, sweat, and it’s a lot to take on, especially in today’s world.”

For Waylon, that opportunity is something he doesn’t take lightly — even on the hard days.

“It’s just a really cool lifestyle that we get to live. Not a lot of people get to do it. We get to wake up and go outside. You never do the same thing twice — every day I wake up, I’m going to do something different,” he said. “It’s just a pretty neat life to live.”

A LEGACY STILL BEING WRITTEN

Now, Wilson, Waylon, and Weston are writing their own chapter of that story. The equipment is different. The technology is different. The challenges are different. But the reason for doing it together hasn’t changed at all.

“The generation before us — we have tripled in size since they started farming. For us, it’s about keeping our name going here on the farm, because it really is special,” Weston said. “It’s important that we work hard and try our best to make it for us and for the generations coming also.”

“I just hope people say that they were good people and that they helped someone through the years,” Wilson added. “If we were successful, to be able to go back on that success and say, ‘He helped me get here, and I’m going to help the next generation get to this stage.’ That’s kind of what I would like to do.”

Out here, the question of who’s in charge matters a lot less than the answer to a better one: what keeps these three brothers coming back to the same farm, day after day? For Wilson, Waylon, and Weston Boyd, the answer has always been the same thing that brought them here in the first place — family.

By: Ray D’Alessio

Lynn Smith Named 2026 GFB Commodity Award Winner for Decades of Water Policy and Agriculture Advocacy

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Tifton |

Long before she became one of the Georgia legislature’s most respected voices on agriculture and natural resources, Lynn Smith was a kid growing up in Florida with a love for the outdoors — and a habit of going out to dig and grow things whenever life got hard. That instinct, it turns out, was a preview of a career defined by a deep belief in the balance between people, the land, and the resources that sustain both.

This year, that career earned her Georgia Farm Bureau’s 2026 Commodity Award — recognition for decades of advocacy and stewardship that left a mark on Georgia’s water policy, agricultural legislation, and the communities that depend on both.

A BALANCED APPROACH TO TOUGH ISSUES

“She’s very protective of our natural resources — our water, our coastline, and all the things that make Georgia great. But she also wants to take private property rights into consideration. It’s a real balance to how Chairman Smith has approached every issue that has come across her committee,” said Robert Dickey, Chairman of the Georgia House Agriculture Committee.

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns echoed that sentiment, describing Smith as someone who could always be counted on when conversations got difficult.

“Lynn has always been one of those people you could count on when the chips were down and the conversation got very difficult — she was willing to stand her ground and ensure she still took the opportunity to protect what she knew was important,” Burns said. “That was people, their livelihoods, but with a main focus on balancing the interests of people — how we make a living and how we provide for others — while also protecting this great Earth and these resources that we have been given.”

FIGHTING THROUGH THE WATER WARS

Much of Smith’s legacy is rooted in Georgia’s long-running water policy battles — a contentious multi-decade fight that pit regions of the state against each other over one of the state’s most essential and contested resources.

“We were the four people who were steady throughout the water wars — Tom McCall, Bob Hanner, Richard Royal, and myself,” Smith said. “Water doesn’t know its boundaries. And the piece of legislation I am most relieved passed — it didn’t happen until 2008 — was the resolution that meant we could go forward with all the decisions we had been working up to. It was the bridge that gave our state agencies the tools they needed.”

That legislation — helping create the framework for the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District — represented years of patient, often contentious work. For Smith, it was the payoff for refusing to treat a shared problem as a territorial battle.

“Think of cowboys and Indians — nobody was going to let go of what they had,” she said. “My point is, we needed to start solving problems. I put my heart into what I did, and I was a problem solver as opposed to a problem creator.”

A CHAMPION FOR AGRICULTURE WHO UNDERSTOOD BOTH WORLDS

For GFB President Tom McCall, what made Smith so effective as an agriculture advocate was precisely that she came from outside the farming world — yet chose to go to bat for it anyway.

“Lynn understands that you eat three times a day, you wear clothes, and you live in a house made out of two-by-fours. That’s the importance of agriculture and forestry in this state,” McCall said. “Anybody that maybe has a different perspective or was raised differently than all of us — and will still go to bat like Lynn did for agriculture — is going to be missed.”

For Smith, the award is a reflection of the people she served alongside as much as the work itself — legislators, advocates, and farmers who believed, like she did, that the right people at the right time could find a way to move forward together.

By: Damon Jones

GFB Commodity Conference Tackles Farm Data Privacy and Georgia’s Forestry Market Crisis

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Tifton, GA |

Georgia Farm Bureau’s policy priorities took shape in Tifton recently at the organization’s annual commodity conference — a crucial step in the policy development process that gives commodity leaders a direct line to GFB’s advocacy work at the state and federal level.

“The policy development process we do here with our commodity advisory committees is important for our organization because it allows leaders from various commodity industries and growers from around the state to get together and talk through some of the more complex issues around their commodities,” said Raynor Churwell, Agricultural Programs Manager for GFB. “Our committees here today will develop and amend policy to set the roadmap for the organization and allow our advocacy specialists and legislative staff to go forth and work on those issues with our elected officials.”

WHO OWNS YOUR FARM DATA?

Beyond policy development, producers also heard from outside experts on pressing issues facing the agricultural industry. One of the most timely: agricultural data — specifically who owns it, who can access it, and how farmers can protect themselves as technology becomes more deeply embedded in everyday farm operations.

“The main issues farmers need to be aware of relate to the privacy and security of their data. They need to make sure they understand how the data is going to be used and who would have access to it, to ensure that any privacy concerns they have are going to be protected,” said Ross Pifer, Professor of Law at Penn State.

Pifer says the stakes will only grow as precision agriculture tools become more widespread — and warns that the legal landscape hasn’t kept pace.

“In order for farmers to take advantage of all of the technological advances available, they’re generating and providing data to others. You want to take advantage of the technology, but you need to be aware that there are potential risks. And at this point, there aren’t a lot of legal frameworks that have been established to provide that protection,” Pifer said.

FORESTRY FACING A MARKET ACCESS CRISIS

Attendees also received an update on one of the hardest-hit sectors in Georgia agriculture in recent years: forestry. Between hurricanes, mill closures, wildfires, and pine beetle pressure, the industry has been under sustained stress — and the root cause, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission, comes down to market access for small-diameter wood.

“The biggest issue we’re having right now in forestry is markets for small-diameter wood and what we call residual — like sawmill shavings from sawmills,” said Johnny Sabo, Director of the Georgia Forestry Commission. “We know about 8.2 million tons of wood came off the market between the early county mill closures and then the mills in Savannah and Riceborough. Of that 8.2 million, about 4.2 million tons were wood in Georgia. So we lost about 4.2 million tons of capacity going into mills.”

Sabo says finding replacement markets for that lost volume is now the central challenge for the entire forestry sector.

“If we can’t move small-diameter wood, we start having southern pine beetle issues. We lose the ability to grow saw timber. It’s really the center of the wheel that makes everything go around for forestry,” he said.

For GFB and its commodity partners, the Tifton conference was a reminder that the policy work happening in meeting rooms often has direct consequences in the field — and that the connections built here are what make that advocacy possible.

By: John Holcomb

Marietta Square Farmers Market Has Grown From 8 Vendors to a Georgia Institution in Twenty Years

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Marietta, GA |

Every Saturday morning, Marietta Square becomes a melting pot of local farmers, chefs, and small business owners — and hundreds of visitors who come to shop, sample, and connect with the people behind their food. What started more than two decades ago as a vision inspired by a trip to the Green Market in New York City has grown into one of Georgia’s most celebrated farmers markets.

“On the way home from New York, my wife Suzy said, ‘Let’s see if we can do something like this on Saturday mornings in Marietta.’ We already had a business on the square, but we thought this would be a real community enhancement,” said Johnny Fulmer, Marketing Director for the Marietta Square Farmers Market. “We started out with eight vendors and it grew from there. Now we have approximately sixty-five to seventy vendors every Saturday with local products.”

YOU KNOW THE FARMER, YOU KNOW THE FOOD

The market has earned the title of Best Farmers Market in Georgia from multiple publications — and the reason comes down to more than just the produce. It’s the relationships built across a folding table that keep people coming back week after week.

“You’re building a relationship with a local farmer. Hopefully you’ll know his practices, how he’s growing the product. And at the end of the day, on the consumer side, it’s the freshness,” said John Gerald of Mama J’s Produce. “Picked Friday, brought here Saturday — versus the grocery store, where it might be three days old, a week old. You just never know.”

That freshness is something Lynn Teddlie of Straight from the Backyard Farm takes seriously. For her crops, even a day makes a difference.

“Okra, cucumbers, and squash — you have to pick every other day or they’re going to be too big. We never refrigerate anything or put it in a cooler. We always pick the day before,” Teddlie said. “Not only does it taste better and have more nutrients, it’s going to last a month or longer in your fridge.”

“You can talk to the farmers, understand the seasonality of your produce, how it was harvested, understand the herbs and their seasons,” added Brittany Woodard of Planet Wellness Co. “You can support local in your community instead of the big box retailers — and it’s often much fresher.”

A HEALTH BENEFIT FOR THE WHOLE COMMUNITY

Beyond the freshness and the relationships, access to this kind of variety has real implications for public health. Registered Dietician Sherry Coleman Collins says markets like this one play an important role in closing a significant nutritional gap.

“Fruits and vegetables are so important for health, of course. We know that eighty percent of Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables — and that’s true across the country,” Collins said. “In an area like Marietta, having easy access to a variety of fruits and vegetables ensures that our population has a healthy diet.”

A WEEK OF WORK, ONE MORNING TO SHARE IT

For the farmers who set up their tables each Saturday, the market represents far more than a sales opportunity. It’s the payoff for a full week of early mornings, long days, and physical labor — and the gratitude of customers who understand what went into it makes it worth every bit of that effort.

“I think a lot of folks are aware of where we’re coming from and how it’s not that easy — and they appreciate it,” said Jody Kaufman of Jody’s Farms. “I just want to say thank you to everybody that is now understanding it.”

For the Marietta Square Farmers Market, Saturday morning isn’t just a shopping trip. It’s where community and agriculture meet — and after more than twenty years, the line to get in is still just as long as it’s ever been.

By: Damon Jones