Perry, GA |

In just over four months, state legislators will be returning under the Gold Dome and kicking off the 2025 session. Just like with every year, there are a number of ag issues they’re hoping to address this upcoming session, which is why the annual Joint Agriculture Committee Chairmen Ag Issues Summit is so important, as they discuss issues within agriculture with ag industry leaders and professionals.

“We had a great Ag Summit, Chairman Goodman and I had a lot of great speakers talking about ag economy and what’s going on all over our state referring to ag and trying to get it on our agenda as we go to the legislative session later this year. My goal is to bring AG to the forefront. As a real priority economic driver of our state and how important it is for the economy of our state that agriculture is successful and profitable. We’re trying to highlight some real headwinds that Georgia agriculture has right now,” says Rep. Robert Dickey, Chairman of the House Ag Committee.

Of course, one of the biggest, if not the biggest headwind Chairman Dickey mentioned is the economic uncertainty many of our state’s farmers are facing. Something Tyler Harper, Commissioner of agriculture says is a real threat he sees everyday and is something that needs addressing sooner rather than later.

“The state of the ag economy in our state, there’s a lot happening. As I mentioned a minute ago the low commodity prices that we have, in some cases, historically low commodity prices; you combine that with high input costs, you combine that with a rail strike in Canada that disrupts supply chains. You combine that with uncertainty in farm policy and ag policy because we don’t have a farm bill right now. There’s a lot of farmers and a lot of producers around our state, and I know I even see it in my own operation at home, we’ve seen the increased cost in seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, the increased cost in feed and those low commodity prices are significantly hurting bottom lines. It’s going to make it a lot more difficult for our farmers and producers to come through this. High interest rates, you combine that with everything else that’s going on and you throw in a natural disaster here and there; it definitely it has a snowball effect this year on the ag economy and I’m hearing that from producers all over the state,” says Tyler Harper, Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture.

In the end, Chairman Dickey and his Senate counterpart, Chairman Russ Goodman are aiming to learn about and prioritize the issues Georgia agriculture is facing as legislators prepare to head back to Atlanta at the beginning of the year.

“I want to make sure our voters and our representatives all across the state know the importance of ag and support it when we get to Atlanta and have policy that moves ag forward, and I think we’ve got to have it on both sides of the aisle, whether you’re urban or rural or in AG or wherever. Agriculture is so important for our state and for the long-term viability. This really elevates it and gets it on people’s priority list,” says Dickey.

By: John Holcomb