GFB holds Commodity Conference

Dr. Gale Buchanan (left) accepts the 2005 Georgia Farm Bureau Commodity Award from GFB President Wayne Dollar during the organization’s annual commodity conference. Buchanan was recognized for the contributions he made to Georgia agriculture while serving as dean and director of the UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences from 1995-2004.

Members of the Georgia Farm Bureau Commodity Committees met in Macon, August 9-10, to discuss issues facing the major commodities produced across the state.

The conference included an ag policy update from Rebeckah Freeman, American Farm Bureau director of governmental relations.Scott Hughes, National Biodiesel Board regulatory director, gave a presentation on the power of biodiesel. UGA Ag Economics Professor Stanley Fletcher discussed how Georgia agriculture will benefit from the Central American Free Trade Agreement -- Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR).

Freeman encouraged GFB members to actively participate in discussions for the upcoming farm bill. “Get yourselves and your story out there and enter into the fray of the farm bill debate,” Freeman said. “It’s going to be a bad budget, and Congress is going to want to cut programs. The discussions are already occurring, not necessarily very publicly, but in Congress and within agencies.”

While discussing the issue of homeland security and how proposed safety precautions might impact agriculture, Freeman told GFB members to consider what they could live with in terms of protecting their supplies of ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonium.

“If another Oklahoma City bombing happens you will lose ammonium nitrate,” Freeman said. “Retail and manufacturers are already coming under scrutiny for homeland security issues. Eventually, agriculture will come under the scrutiny of the Homeland Security Department, and then all bets are off because traditional ag supporters in Congress place a precedent on homeland security.”

As interest in biodiesel continues to grow with increasing fuel prices, Hughes encouraged GFB members to seek state support for the use of biodiesel blends in state fleet cars and tax incentives to encourage the production and distribution of biodiesel. Georgia has two biodiesel producers and five distributors. There are 40 commercial biodiesel producers and 1,500 distributors nationwide.

While discussing CAFTA-DR, Fletcher said he had mixed feelings about the trade agreement the Bush administration fought for so fiercely.

“With CAFTA, the U.S. is trying to eliminate the tariffs applied to U.S. exports to participating CAFTA countries,” Fletcher said. “Most of the products entering the U.S. from CAFTA countries were coming into the U.S. tariff free because of the previously passed Caribbean Initiative.”

Fletcher said farmers should be more concerned about the DOHA Round of the World Trade Organization. “That’s where decisions that are really going to affect agriculture are going to be made. If DOHA fails, then CAFTA will become more important.”

A positive aspect of the CAFTA agreement is that is includes provisions to ensure that products exported under the agreement are made in CAFTA countries and not imported from another country, such as China, and then exported. Fletcher said the agreement should help stabilize the U.S. textile industry.

Dr. Gale Buchanan, former dean of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences (CAES), received the 2005 Georgia Farm Bureau Commodity Award in recognition of the contributions he has made to Georgia agriculture.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Dr. Buchanan for the past ten years. Despite the fact that funds at the university were being cut, he managed to run the College of Agriculture and he managed to carry it on,” GFB President Wayne Dollar, said. “He’s always been responsive and very supportive of Farm Bureau.”

Buchanan served as CAES dean from March 1, 1995 to Dec. 31, 2004. He taught a class on the future of the land grant university until April 30, 2005, when he officially retired. Buchanan, a weed science agronomist, first joined the UGA faculty in 1986 as associate director of the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations and resident director of the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations and resident director of the UGA Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton. Prior to coming to UGA, Buchanan was on the Auburn University faculty for 20 years and was dean and director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station from 1980 until 1985. He grew up on a diversified row crop and vegetable farm in Madison County, Florida.

“I valued the relationship I had with Mr. Dollar and all of the Farm Bureau members throughout Georgia. Nothing is as meaningful to me as recognition from Georgia Farm Bureau,” Buchanan said when accepting the award. “I can’t say how important it is that all Farm Bureau members have an interest in their land grant university.”