Tag Archives: Georgia politics

Georgia Farmers Advocate for Relief & Reform at State Capitol

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Atlanta, GA |

Recently in Atlanta, Georgia Farm Bureau showed off its grassroots strength as nearly 600 members attended this year’s GFB Day at the Capitol event – an annual gathering full of advocacy, education, and fellowship between members and their legislators.

“As a true grassroots organization, that is what we’re here for. We’re connecting the constituents and our members back home with their elected officials so they can hear directly from the experts what kind of hurdles they’re having to deal with on the farm. And there are thousands of bills that get introduced every year, they cannot be experts on every topic. So they rely on not only the folks that represent organizations, but especially when we can bring the members here directly so they can hear from them,” says Alex Bradford Director of Public for GFB.

Of course, the timing of the event couldn’t come at a better time as there are several ag issues being discussed this year; the main one being Hurricane Helene Relief, like increasing funding for the Safety 24 low interest loan program that would put money into farmers’ pockets.

“The Georgia Development Authority is overseeing the safety twenty-four low interest loan program. So one of the things we’re doing is advocating for more funding to be made available through that loan program so that low interest loan offers producers the loan at two percent, which is, well below market rate right now. Helps get them some cash quick as they begin the rebuild process and prepare and plan for this coming up growing season,” says Adam Belflower, GFB State Affairs Manager.

Another huge Hurricane Helene Relief measure comes with House Bill 223 – a bill that aims to provide relief to the sixty-six counties under disaster declaration: First and foremost, it would exempt state income tax on federal disaster assistance. Second, it would create a reforestation tax credit for all trees in the commercial production of timber, food, or wood products. Lastly it would provide a sales tax exemption for building materials for poultry houses and livestock barns – all things Belflower says would be great for the ag sector, but says they’re still working to find other helpful relief measures.

“There’s some other ideas in the chambers right now of what we can do to build on the work that’s already happening. So we’re working with members to try to see what the best path forward is, just to provide relief for our folks,” says Belflower.

Another big issue being worked on this year is tort reform as insurance premiums have undeniably gotten out of control, which has left small businesses, farmers, and their operations in a vulnerable position.

“What we’re seeing is it becoming more and more expensive to get insurance, access to insurance for some of these people that carry really high liability coverage, for different things whether that might be commercial trucking, different businesses in general. And really on all Georgians, it’s driving up the cost of doing business, and it’s driving up the cost for just everyday insurers to keep that coverage that they need. But overall, the goal is to drive down the cost of doing business and to ease a burden on Georgians that are really just constantly getting hit with skyrocketing insurance rates, small business owners, farmers that are constantly at threat of a lawsuit,” says Belflower.

By: John Holcomb

Ag Leaders Join Lawmakers to Discuss 2025 Session

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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

Ag Leaders Address Challenges, Opportunities at Annual Ag Issues Summit

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Perry, GA

In just over four months, state legislators will be returning under the Gold Dome and kicking off the 2024 session. Just like with every year, there are a number of ag issues they’re hoping to address, which is why the annual Joint Agriculture Committee Chairmen Ag Issues Summit is so important, as they discuss issues within agriculture with fellow ag industry leaders and professionals.

“Representative Robert Dickey and myself we co-hosted it and we worked together with our friends across the industry to come up with speakers and with subjects that are near and dear to the ag industry with challenges and opportunities that we need to look at going forward,” says Russ Goodman, Senate Ag Committee Chairman. “We heard some great speakers. We talked about foreign ownership of land. We talked about fertilizer. We talked about a future economic forecast and production agriculture. We just looked at a lot of different subjects and looking at what opportunities lay ahead for us as policymakers, the things we can do to help our state’s farm families and to help our number one industry.”

One of those speakers was Iowa State Extension Economist, Chad Hart, who spoke on the farming economy and the challenges impacting it; everything from the weather to geopolitical factors around the world that Hart says is causing problems for our producers here in Georgia and across the US.

“Just here within the U.S., we’ve had a drought. You know, it’s covered the southern and central part of the U.S. here for the last three years. That definitely has an impact. We’ve seen drought also in South America, but probably one of the biggest things I think farmers throughout the country felt were this, let’s call it the seesaw of import prices that we’ve seen over the past couple of years. Fertilizer was a big one for a lot of folks, especially last year. Compared to this year. We saw prices rocket to record levels. Well, some of that is linked to COVID going back to supply chain problems back then. Some of that is related to the Ukrainian war. A lot of the fertilizers that we bring in here to the U.S. gets its start in Eastern Europe. So, you’re seeing these international incidents combined with natural disasters that have led to increasing expenses here to conduct agriculture,” says Hart.

As mentioned, that wasn’t the only topic discussed, but according to Robert Dickey, House Ag Committee Chairman and farmer himself, it’s that issue he says needs some major attention this upcoming session, as he believes that when ag succeeds, the entire state does.

“We’re facing it all. Agriculture is one of those industries that just gets it all. So we need some levers. We’re looking for what would be good for our citizens and our farmers. I think when farming, the state’s largest industry succeeds, our state will succeed and have trickled down to our community. So that’s one of the challenges, where we look to make sure AG is long term profitable in our state and other states are doing more than Georgia, and that’s where we’re going to look further,” says Dickey.

By: John Holcomb

Gathering Brings GFB Members Directly to Lawmakers

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Atlanta, GA

Once a year in Atlanta, grassroots advocacy comes to life as Georgia Farm Bureau members gather for a chance to hear about the important ag issues being debated and for a chance to meet with their representatives – something GFB President, Tom McCall says shows just how important the agriculture industry is to those that represent them.

“When we have this every year, it lets our people get to know their elected people and they can work together with them, and they get to know them and when they call them, they’ll listen to them more than they would if they was just somebody cold calling,” says McCall. “It’s people who are here on their own dime. They’re not getting paid. They left their farm, they left their business to come and support Farm Bureau and the policies that we push for.”

The annual event couldn’t have come at a better time as there are several bills this legislative session that would have a direct impact on the state’s agriculture industry, such as House Bill 189 – a bill that would increase haul weights by for trucks hauling agricultural goods – something Jake Matthews, Governmental Affairs Specialist with GFB says would be great for farmers and producers when transporting commodities that have variable weights.

“Currently in the state of Georgia, you can haul eighty thousand pounds on a five-axle truck,” says Matthews. “Agriculture for a long time, has been granted an exemption for that where they can actually haul up to eighty-four thousand pounds; that’s actually a five percent variance on top of the eighty thousand pounds, and what that’s for really is to account for just the unpredictable nature of hauling ag commodities. When you start getting into moisture content of certain commodities as well as fluctuating live-weight of cattle for instance, that variance is really important to make sure there’s some give there, for farmers and folks hauling their product, to have some give there as they can’t really tell how much that truck’s going to weigh unless they’re weighing it. So, having that variance is good to account for those sort of things.”

According to Matthews, the measure would also help create an even playing field with other states in the region.

“When you look at our surrounding and neighboring states in the Southeast, you got a number of states that have higher truck weights; allowable haul weights than we do. Some of those states, those higher weights are specific to agriculture, kind of how we have it here in Georgia right now. Other states, it’s across the board, so there’s definitely a little bit of variation to how different states do it, but if you look at it holistically, Georgia is behind on the amount of weight that we can haul as compared to our neighboring southeastern states,” says Matthews.

Matthews says the measure would also be more economical for farmers and producers when transporting their commodities – as more per load results in fewer trips.

“We believe that increasing those haul weights is really a direct benefit to farmers’ bottom line. If you can carry more on one truck, you’re going to be able to have fewer trips to move your product and like I said, that will be a direct benefit to farmers’ bottom line,” says Matthews.

By: John Holcomb