AG Forecast Looks Sunny

Local and state officials told a crowd at the 2011 Georgia Ag Forecast on Wednesday that agricultural industry has been and will remain a vital asset to the Georgia economy; in the coming year, it will continue to be a boon both to the local and regional economies through the further implementation of locally-sourced food programs and other innovative approaches.

Dr. Scott Angle, dean and director of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said that agriculture has long been the largest industry in the state, and for this reason, it’s going to be the market that helps the Georgia economy recover from the recession of recent years. Nowhere is this truer than in Carroll County, which boasts the most cattle of any county in the state and is continuing to develop innovative methods of turning local production into local profit.

Georgia lawmakers have done much to protect the rights of farmers in years past, and unlike states like California and Maryland, Georgia has maintained a pro-agricultural climate free of potentially-crippling regulations, Angle said. It’s up to farmers, though, to ensure that state representatives uphold their end of the bargain, he said.

“Georgia is becoming the breadbasket of the world,” Angle said. “We’ve been lucky in Georgia to have agriculture-friendly policies … I hope all of you hold the politicians feet to the fire because this is an industry that’s going to get us out of this recession.”

County officials have encouraged agriculture locally since Carroll County was formed in 1826, said Carroll County Extension Agent Bill Hodge. While the years have shown a shift in county agriculture—from the cotton trade of the 19^th century to the cattle farms of today—the rural tradition has remained a constant, Hodge said.

Currently, the county is exploring agricultural options that have never been explored before or have long since been forgotten about. Prior to prohibition, Carroll County had a successful wine industry, and local officials are now working with farmers to start cultivating grapes once again, a project with an ultimate goal of one day establishing a cooperative winery. In addition, a New Zealand-based company last year submitted a feasibility study on a multi-species meat processing plant. Because of the innovative nature of the proposed plant—there are only several of its kind in the entire world—officials are still working to determine how to best implement such a project locally.

All of these efforts are ultimately aimed at providing a locally-produced food source for local residents, a move that has seen success in recent years and will only continue to grow in the future. The local farmer’s market is going on its tenth year, and the Farm Fresh Program, which provides county-produced foodstuffs to participating families, has been expanded to include more than 300 households countywide.

The Carroll County Prison is once again planning on cultivating an inmate garden, and this year, it will be expanded to five acres. If Mother Nature is cooperative, food produced in the garden could reduce the cost of feeding inmates by nearly 50 cents a meal, ultimately culminating in major savings for taxpayers.

“We feel like what we’re doing is recycling money in the community to support the local economy,” Hodge said.