August 14, 2024
www.gfb.org
Vol. 6 No. 15
WEATHER, ECONOMY & POLITICS KEY TOPICS AT GFB COMMODITY CONF. The 2024 Georgia Farm Bureau Commodity Conference on Aug. 8 in Tifton gave the organization’s 20 commodity advisory committees a chance to begin considering policy stances for 2025. They also heard presentations on state government, weather, land values, farm-related legal issues, the economy and the political landscape. Here’s a look: Harper summarizes GDA work Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper praised Georgia Farm Bureau for its advocacy efforts and reviewed some of the work the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) is doing to support Georgia's farmers and consumers. Harper said the department has created a separate division specifically for farmers markets. GDA has named Lindsey Brown as division director to oversee the markets. Harper noted that the state legislature allocated $37.5 million for infrastructure improvements at the Atlanta State Farmers Market. “We are building out a team that will focus solely on our farmers markets and ensuring that they have the needed resources and staff to be able to provide that access to market,” Harper said. “The farmers markets are different today than they were when they were built in the 1950s and in a lot of different capacities. But the mission still is the same in providing our producers, our farmers with an avenue to sell their product to a consumer.” The commissioner said the GDA is still challenged with hiring people to carry out its functions, including issuing some 80,000 licenses and conducting more than 125,000 inspections per year. “When I walked in the door, we had about 130 vacancies in the department,” Harper said. “We still have around 90, which is significant for us because it makes it a lot more difficult obviously for us to do the job that we've been tasked with every single day.” He said the legislature helped by authorizing 4% raises for state employees and an extra $2,000 for GDA inspectors. Harper discussed agricultural land conservation and foreign ownership of agricultural land. The legislature passed the Georgia Farmland Conservation Act, which establishes the Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund. The legislature budgeted $2 million to support the fund, which is a -continued on next page