GFB members visit Capitol to discuss ag issues

by Jennifer Whittaker, Editor

Gov. Sonny Perdue welcomed the group of about 500 GFB members to the Georgia Capitol.

More than 500 Georgia Farm Bureau members traveled to Atlanta to attend the annual Georgia Farm Bureau Day at the Capitol, Feb. 8.

The GFB members gathered at the Georgia Depot to receive a briefing on ag legislation being considered by the Georgia General Assembly before walking across the street to the Capitol to meet with their legislators.

Issues discussed during the day included farmland preservation; preservation of water rights and limits on interbasin and intrabasin water transfers; tort reform; protecting the integrity of conservation use value assessments and funding for the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“The Senate and House were very receptive to us as were the governor, lieutenant governor and other constitutional officers. Farm Bureau is a reckoning force and our people do a great job of expressing what they need,” GFB President Wayne Dollar said. “We’re monitoring at least a dozen bills this year and will call our people in to lobby for them as needed.”

Pictured from right, Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-District 19) presents GFB President Wayne Dollar with a resolution honoring Georgia Farm Bureau for the contributions it makes to Georgia agriculture. Georgia Farm Bureau 1st Vice President Donald Childs and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Tom McCall (R-District 30) also participated in the resolution presentation.

Gov. Sonny Perdue welcomed the GFB members to the capitol during a brief morning meeting. Resolutions recognizing Georgia Farm Bureau were read in both the House and Senate. Numerous state officials including Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond, Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin and Chairman of the House and Senate Agriculture Committee Sen. John Bulloch addressed the crowd of more than 700 attending the luncheon.

House Ag Committee Chair Tom McCall said water is a continuing issue for Georgia agriculture. “We need to use a common sense approach to clean water and water useage and how to conserve it.”

Bulloch said he expects the Senate will address HB 98, “The Georgia Land Conservation Act” that passed the House last week. “I think this is a great move to be able to protect agricultural land and to be able to put it into conservation.”

On Feb. 8, the Senate passed legislation to provide consistency in the implementation of the Fertilizer Act of 1997. “We just want good consistent regulations on packaging, labeling and storing fertilizer products,” Bulloch said. The legislation must now make its way through the House.

“I believe it’s very important for our local boards to come up and talk with our legislators because there are a lot of issues that affect us back at the farm,” Alan Davis, a Decatur County Farm Bureau board member, said. “This gives us an opportunity to come up here and get to know them a little bit better and let them know who we are and that we’re interested in what they’re doing and that it’s important to us.”