TEAMMATES
It has been a very long, hot summer, but each passing day brings us one day closer to fall and cooler weather. Boys growing up in Georgia relish the memories of Friday night football, as do the parents, siblings and fans who cheer their players on from the stands. Nothing brings a community together like a high school football game. Country music singer Kenny Chesney says it best in his song “Boys of Fall.” High school football is about families, communities and teamwork.
I’m proud to announce that Georgia Farm Bureau is teaming up with the Georgia High School Association this fall to support communities across Georgia and their youth while promoting our local Farm Bureaus. The youth who will take to the field are among the future leaders of our communities and our state, so... GO TEAMS!
This fall, GFB is also teaming up with the University of Georgia to promote our organization and Georgia agriculture with ads on the back of the tickets for home football games. The UGA Athletic Association offered us this opportunity, and we thought it was a great way to get the 92,746 fans who fill the stadium seats each game to think about Farm Bureau and the farmers who grow their food.
In July, the Georgia Farm Bureau Board of Directors decided to join a team - the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA). This team is made up of agriculture and commodity organizations from around the country. USFRA’s vision is to enhance consumer trust in the U.S. food production system while maintaining and enhancing the freedom of U.S. farmers and ranchers to operate in a responsible manner. As farmers, we work hard to safely produce food for consumers around the world. The USFRA is uniting many different agriculture groups behind the common goal of answering consumers’ questions about how we produce their food and educating consumers about the steps farmers take to protect the environment and care for our livestock. You can learn more about this effort and get involved at http://usfraonline.org.
In late July, GFB had a great Young Farmer Leadership Conference at Callaway Gardens attended by more than 200 young farmers from around the state. A record 23 contestants competed for the final four spots of the GFB Young Farmer Discussion Meet to be held during our annual convention in December, and the GFB Young Farmer Achievement finalists were named.
Conference attendees also selected the winners of the GFB photo contest. The winning photos will be used on the 2012 Young Farmer calendar. Congratulations to our winners! We had a lot of good fellowship and fun, and my family is already looking forward to next year’s conference.
The 2011 GFB Commodity Conference was held August 11 in Athens at the University of Georgia. This conference gave our commodity leaders the chance to tour some of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ research facilities on the Athens campus. GFB’s commodity committees play a major role in leading this organization into our annual policy development season. They are passionate and motivated about working together to move Georgia agriculture forward. It was good to have our Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black and CAES Dean Scott Angle with us to give updates on what is going on in Georgia agriculture. I also had the pleasure of presenting former GFB First Vice President Donald Childs with the 2011 GFB Commodity Award.
Speaking of the Department of Agriculture, we are very excited about teaming up with the department to spotlight Georgia agriculture at this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie. GFB is joining forces with the GDA to create an exhibit highlighting Georgia agriculture, the GDA and GFB. The exhibit will be housed in a building at the main entrance gate that was formerly a storage building. Our new exhibit space will replace our former exhibit location. Please make plans to come and enjoy the show Oct. 18-20 and stop by and visit us.
Georgia Farm Bureau believes in teamwork. As a team, the grassroots of this organization can endure with one mental attitude and ultimately find comfort with the challenges of the day. Romans 15:5 says, “Now may the God who supplies endurance and comfort grant you to have among yourselves the same mental attitude that Christ Jesus had, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
God Bless,
Zippy
(From the August / September 2011 issue of the Georgia Farm Bureau News)