Tag Archives: ag industry

How Meaningful Conversations Are Shaping the Future of Agriculture | Meet Cain Thurmond

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Jefferson, GA |

For Cain Thurmond, competing this Summer in the GFB YF&R Discussion Meet competition was a no brainer, as the competition is one that fosters conversations that can lead to meaningful solutions – something he says is vital to agriculture’s overall success.

“I think the beautiful thing about discussion meet is that it’s not a debate. You’re not sitting across from someone, you’re sitting with someone. So it allows all of the competitors while they are still competitors, to work on solving an issue together and that’s actually how the scorecard is based, is that we’ve got to work together, and that’s what you get points for. Coming up with a solution together in a cohesive way is how you get points. It’s the purpose of the competition,” says Cain Thurmond, 2024 GFB YF&R Discussion Meet Winner.

“It really made me dig deeper and have great discussions inside and outside of the competition, not only for, what the farming community is facing as a whole, but also what young producers are facing. Most of the questions are really geared towards young members, how we get those young members involved, how do we even create sustainability within the ag industry through getting young producers involved? So, um, there’s purpose to this competition. It’s not a mock competition we throw out there. These are the conversations we should be having,” added Thurmond.

For Cain, that need and desire for meaningful discussions surrounding the issues in ag is second nature, as his passion for the industry and its success is deeply ingrained in him.

“I attribute a lot of where my life is today to the industry of agriculture. I was involved in FFA when I was younger. I actually met my wife through FFA, I got my first job through connections that I found within FFA and agriculture, and even the job that I work today is based within agriculture. So my wife, Whitney, and I get really passionate when speaking about agriculture and passing that on to the next generation. I’m really passionate about the industry of agriculture, and my wife and I actually just started a Christmas Tree Farm on the other side of town. So we are getting our hands dirty and actually getting back involved into agriculture as opposed to our nine to five. We’re spending weekends and nights planting Christmas trees here, coming up as we plant our second crop, and then we’ll hopefully be selling Christmas trees in 2026,” says Thurmond.

Cain will now head to San Antonio where he’ll be competing for national recognition at the upcoming annual AFBF convention – an opportunity he says is an honor and is ready to give it his best shot.

“Certainly an honor to represent Georgia on a national scale. The level of competition within the state of Georgia was immense, so having an opportunity to represent those who sat at a table with me, in July at Jekyll, certainly an honor. I look forward to going to nationals and representing Georgia and just hopefully give them my best shot,” says Thurmond.

By: John Holcomb

Unlocking Georgia’s Agritourism Revolution

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Peachtree City, GA |

With the goal of supporting local farms and spreading the story of agriculture, the GFB Certified Farm Markets program has seen their number of participating farms skyrocket over the past few years, providing a snapshot of the diversity of operations that can be found here in the state.

“This year, we have a hundred farms across the state of Georgia that invite you to come and visit them to see what they do. No two are alike. So, we have everything from farms like Alo Farms, who is hydroponic, to row crops, to hog farms, to farms that do both vegetables and beautiful flowers,” says Kelly Henry, GFB Certified Farm Market Coordinator.

To help guide you through all of these different choices is the GFB Farm Passport, which not only provides a detailed description of the more than one hundred operations, but also rewards for paying them a visit.

“You take your farm passport with you and just like if you’re visiting another country, you get stamps. Your stamps earn you prizes at the end of the year. Five is a T-shirt. Ten is Ag swag. Twenty is a farm to table dinner and tour, our signature event of the year. And then, thirty is goodies from the farm,” says Henry.

It’s not just the visitors that benefit from this program, but also the farms that are involved like Alo Farms, a unique operation in Peachtree City.

“We joined a few years ago and it’s just been an amazing partnership. All the participants in the stamp program are just excited to be here. They have great questions. We love being able to share and talk with them about the farm. So, it brings a lot of enthusiastic customers who appreciate agriculture and what it takes to run and operate a farm. It’s brought us a lot of local people who didn’t know we were here,” says Alec Brown – GM of Alo Farms. “So, Alo Farms is a family owned and operated company. My dad, Jefferson, he’s an architect, and he started our farm about 15 years ago on the design and innovation side as a means to address food insecurity on a large scale and specifically in urban environments. So, our commercial farm right now is less than 20 thousand square feet. We’ll out produce about 75-125 acres worth in soil of the same types of crops.”

This is just one of the many agritourism destinations that will be featured in the new, 2024 Farm Passport when it’s released in less than a month.

“Kickoff is exciting every year, March 16th and will run all the way through the year. So, we even get those Christmas tree farms in at the end of the year. So, if you haven’t gotten your passport yet, you can start it at any of the participating farms found at gfb.ag/passport. You can also pick one up at any of your local county Farm Bureau offices,” says Henry.

By: Damon Jones

Georgia Federal-State Inspection Service’s Important Role within the Peanut Industry

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Ty Ty, GA |

Each Fall, all across the state, peanuts are dug up, harvested, and taken to buying points that will shell them and market them to their final destination. However, an important part of that process is what’s called grading, which is completed by the Georgia Federal-State Inspection service, that ensures both the grower and shellers receive a non-biased grade that’s used to make sure all parties get compensated fairly.

“We’re an organization founded in 1927 to be a non-biased third party between the buyer and the producer. Mostly in Georgia it’s peanuts, but it’s different commodities also. What we really do is we ensure that the buyer isn’t paying too much for the peanuts and the producer is getting a fair amount for the peanuts as well. So, our organization doesn’t lean toward one side or the other. We’re here to be a nonbiased party,” says Willie Musselwhite, District Manager for the GA Federal-State Inspection Service.

According to Musselwhite, the job is one that’s taken very seriously, as they strive for uniformity so that it’s an equal playing field for everyone, which is why when they take samples from each truck, they work it in a very methodical way to ensure it’s done properly and consistently.

“To the farmer, he wants to get paid. He worked very hard to produce this product and he wants to get paid the ultimate price for his profit. So, once we are going in there and determine the grade, it really determines how much the farmer’s getting paid for his peanuts. So, if it grades really high, he wants a premium grade for his peanuts, but on the other hand, if it were to grade a lower grade, the buyer would not want to pay that premium price for it. So, what we’re doing is we’re telling the farmer, and the buyer; this this is what you have. We don’t set the prices for them, USDA and the buyers, they set the prices, but whatever grade it has that determines the price on the peanut,” says Musselwhite.

Musselwhite says that the grading process is also important because it can help further improve peanut production here in Georgia as it gives researchers, breeders, and growers information that can be useful in the future.

“Georgia produces technically 50 percent of nation’s peanuts and we strive every year to produce different varieties; University of Georgia, yield better yields and make higher quality peanuts. So, we do the research through grading, different trials and all that they’re trying to make a better product. Because after a while, the problems you have now, it fails to grade what it was . We’re always having different things come out the university system and different geneticists are making it happen. It’s very important for the peanut industry to have to have somebody doing that because it’ll provide more income for the farmers in the long run and a better quality peanut for the shellers, the candymakers, and the industry in general,” says Musselwhite.

By: John Holcomb

This Cobb County Company Finished Strong in Puerto Rico

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Acworth, GA

On the outside, these might look like just your ordinary shipping containers, but take a look on the inside and you might get a sneak peek into the future of mushroom production, as this prototype from MycoLogic implements controlled environment technology designed to maximize harvests.

“It’s about providing the optimized conditions to reduce the time for cropping as wells as to increase the yields of the mushrooms that were produced,” says Chris Cornelison. “So, the old adage time is money, right? So, the faster you can grow more mushrooms, the more profitable your operation is.”

The biggest obstacle to making a profit is the ever-rising cost of production. However, growing mushrooms in this kind of controlled environment keeps those expenses to a minimum.

“The biggest difference between plants and mushrooms is that mushrooms can grow in the complete absence of light. So, you save a lot of energy or save a lot of money on not having to um, use energy to produce light. In this container, we operate on about twenty to thirty dollars a month,” says Kyle Gabriel.

Another benefit to this type of production is farmers can make use of the byproducts their crops produce by fertilizing different types of mushrooms.

“One of our initiatives is trying to find locally sourced agricultural waste materials and then developing the correct formulation or the ideal ratio for different species of mushrooms to grow on. So, if we can find an area say in Georgia that has a large amount of cotton gin byproduct, peanut shells, corn shaft, we can sort of tailor what mushrooms will grow ideal for that particular region,” says Gabriel.

This would not only be beneficial to the farmer’s bottom line, but also the environment as a whole.

“You know, there’s a lot of byproduct in Georgia, whether it be peanut hulls or spent cotton gin byproduct that are perfectly suitable for mushroom cultivation. They’re produced in thousands of tons, right? And so, if we can recapture some of those residues to create a value-added product; not only is that good for sustainability, but that’s also good for the state’s economy,” says Cornelison.

“It will add to the circular economy where we’re recycling, we’re taking these byproducts that would be a burden to the farmer and they would sit in the field or they would be burned which is bad for the environment and then we can turn those into products that can grow mushrooms,” says Gabriel.

This idea already has a number of believers, as MycoLogic has partnered with multiple farmers across the state, which is the first step in their five-year journey finally coming to fruition.

“We are both applied scientists. So, we’re always looking move discoveries out of the academic laboratory and into the market to realize the full potential. So, the overall goal for the project is to continue to refine the technology based off of customer feedback and partnerships with existing growers and come up with a minimal viable product that we hope to launch in 2023,” says Cornelison.

By: Damon Jones

Fruits, Vegetables and More in Savannah

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Savannah, GA

For the past 21 years, fruit and vegetable growers from all over the Southeast have made their way to the annual Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable conference – a four-day event that’s purpose is to equip producers within the industry with all the tools they need to see success back on their operations.

“We are back in person in Savannah for the Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference; our attendance is at record levels, but it’s the one place where you bring together all of the fruit and vegetable production side of the industry all under one roof, so everything a grower needs from seeds and equipment to fertilizer and then most importantly is knowledge,” says Chris Butts, Executive Vice President of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. “We’ve got four full days of education sessions, full of real-world information that our growers can take back and put to use on the farm.”

One of the educational topics discussed at the conference was food safety – an issue that Rob Martin with the UGA Small Business Development Center says is vital to the fruit and vegetable industry and believes it’s something that can be controlled.

“We know from the data that annually, one in six people in the United States gets sick from some kind of food borne illness,” says Martin. “So, of those numbers, the amount that are hospitalized, the amount that die, three thousand people a year die due to food contamination, so when you think about the importance, that’s the importance. I can handle getting ill and sick after eating something, but put me in the hospital, losing a family member because of something like that, that’s pretty serious, and when we know food safety is basically something we control.”

According to Alexis Hamilton, Extension Specialist with Virginia Tech, food safety is a matter that must be practiced by every single person working on the operation.

“There’s so many people that are involved in producing food and making sure that everyone is onboard with every action that they partake in; in the packing house or in your fresh produce operation, making sure that every one of those is aimed at producing safe food is going to go a long way to ensuring that the product that makes it to the market is one that we can safely enjoy,” says Hamilton.

However, making that a reality is a different story, which is why Martin believes the best way to make sure everyone is doing their part, is by making food safety a part of the culture within the operation.

“Just like anything else, with an operation, if the owner, the manager, the line down is not bought into the process, we can’t expect our employees and workers to be bought in. So, it’s important for us to understand as managers and owners that if we don’t show it and exude it, and give that example, then we can’t expect our employees to. So, that’s the importance of kind of building that culture, going about that process and just making sure it’s a, it’s a requirement and a focus on importance for the operation,” says Martin.

By: John Holcomb

San Juan Hosted 2023 AFBF Convention

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San Juan, PR

After years of planning and endless challenges, including two major hurricanes, San Juan finally got to say, “Welcome, Mi Familia” to American Farm Bureau’s annual convention. It’s a time to unite and hear the opinions of current agriculture leaders as well as future ag leaders on the current state of the farming industry. It’s also a time to put aside the daily stresses of farm life and enjoy the sights and sounds the host city has to offer, or in this case the host island.

“San Juan right now, so far would be at the top of the list,” says Daniel Johnson, First Vice President for Georgia Farm Bureau. “We’ve been to a lot of conventions, a lot of places, and this compares to anything we have in the United States. I mean, their convention center is wonderful. It’s state of art.”

Tom McCall, GFB President adding, “I was pleasantly surprised. All the facilities and the hotels down here, and there’s a good crowd. They’re expecting around five-thousand people from across the country.”

While many of the attendees used this convention as a destination vacation, for the GFB Young Farmers and Ranchers taking part in the various competitions, vacations aside, this was a business trip.

“I come down here with a job and task at mind, and also, like I said, to meet new people and experience this convention. This is my first time ever attending American Farm Bureau, so I wanna soak it in and learn. That was my main reason for coming down here,” says Hart County Young Farmer, Brian Fleming.

Admitting he was nervous before his presentation in the Excellence in AG competition, Fleming says he stayed up all night rehearsing, which resulted in little to no sleep, but once he got going, Brian was smooth, confident, and spoke with emotion when expressing his passion for agriculture.

“From the time I was a little boy, ag’s been my life. As I got older, Farm Bureau became my life and the two combined together. Like I said in that last slide, I want the future generations to have that same opportunity that have been afforded to me over the years. So, that’s where my passion comes from,” says Fleming.

Brian however, wasn’t the only one with passion on his side. Willie Sizemore of Leesburg had a virtual cakewalk to the sweet-sixteen of the discussion meet. This future lawyer arrived in Puerto Rico with well thought out opinions and ideas for the purpose of problem solving, which of course is the whole premise of these discussions.

“What’s interesting about this competition compared to the state is you get all these nationwide perspectives,” says Sizemore. “You know, we had an individual who was competing with us that raised pigs in Nevada outside of Las Vegas and fed leftovers from the casinos to their operation to reduce input costs. We’ve got to wake up early in the morning, put on a suit at the beach, and that’s not a normal thing you would do, but it’s important to represent Georgia Farm Bureau this way and to represent our County Farm Bureau, Lee County Farm Bureau. For me, it’s important to show up prepared and and do well, and that’s why I’m here is to do well. It might be a business trip, but it’s a fun trip at the same time.”

By: Ray D’Alessio