Officials discuss ag issues with GFB 6th District farmers

Pictured from left: Dodge County Farm Bureau President Johnny Johnson introduces Eastman-Dodge Chamber of Commerce President Josh Fenn, GFB President Zippy Duvall, U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall and GA Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin.

Farmers attending a forum hosted August 30 by the Dodge County Farm Bureau, Dodge County Extension Service and the Eastman-Dodge Chamber of Commerce, received updates on the farm bill and other current ag issues.

U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, Georgia Rep. Jimmy Pruitt, Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin, Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture Terry Coleman, and Georgia Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall were joined by agricultural aides Bill Stembridge of Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ office and Jody Redding of Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office.
Georgia native Matt Coley, who is a staff member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, outlined the Senate’s proposed timeline for addressing the farm bill. “Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, is supposed to release his chairman’s mark the second week of September,” Coley said. “Our ultimate goal is to get the farm bill to the Senate floor by October, but the timetable tends to move around a good bit, and important issues like the farm bill can get put on the backburner.”
“I’m real pleased with what came out of the House for the farm bill and hope the Senate can improve on it,” Rep. Marshall said. “I’d like to see the peanut title improve with more funding for the new peanut conservation program, but we did well to keep separate payment limits for peanuts. We funded the peanut conservation program at ten million dollars, but I’m hoping the Senate will be able to increase funding to fifty million. The good news for Georgia is the money allocated for marketing and research of specialty crops.”
Rep. Pruitt discussed the statewide water plan that the General Assembly will consider in the ’08 session. “It will take us some time to sort through it. It’s a necessary plan, particularly for farmers, but if we help come up with the plan we’ll be more successful than if we let people come up with the plan for us. First we have to find out how much water we have and how much water we are using.” He encouraged farmers to participate in the water metering program coordinated by the Georgia Soil & Water Conservation Commission.
“It’s good to see these three organizations working together to let our farmers’ voices be heard by the people representing them,” Duvall said.
When the panel began discussing immigration issues, Dodge County vegetable producer Brian Watkins voiced his frustration with using the H-2A program to locate legal workers. “There’s no one here who is willing to get out in the fields and harvest crops. We use contractors who recruit workers through the H-2A program. The problem with H-2A is it’s so expensive and isn’t flexible enough to account for weather, which may diminish your crop and the number of workers you need. You have to know two months ahead of time the dates and times you intend to harvest. The expense of paying $800 to $850 a worker to cover the cost of his legal paperwork and transportation to get him here almost breaks us. Then the workers are guaranteed a minimum wage of eight dollars an hour. We need a workable labor program to get legal workers.”