AGL Session VI: South West Georgia

We haven’t met for AGL since we returned from our DC/NY national trip. I have missed these folks! We met in Lakeland on Sunday, November 3 at Georgia Olive Farms to learn about the emerging olive industry in Georgia. What?!? You didn’t know there are olives in Georgia? I had the pleasure of working with Jason, Sam, and Kevin Shaw about four years ago to promote their farm and the new industry. At the time, the U.S. imported about 99% of the olive oil it consumed, with the other 1% produced in California. At last count, 3% of consumption is currently being produced in the U.S. now.

The Shaws are great guys and they have beautiful olive farm. Their olive oil cannot be beat and I almost just want to drink it straight up in a shot glass!

   

That evening, we had an overview of Georgia’s timber and forestry industries by classmates Tim Bland and Jesse Johnson. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about forestry. It is a huge industry for Georgia.

The next morning, we traveled to Langdale Forest Products saw mill and got a tour of the facility. Saw mills are very automated and use the latest technologies to maximize efficiency. The Langdales make use of every last bit of material they get from the trees. Even saw dust is swept up and burned to help offset the mill’s energy consumption. I must say that we were told to wear close-toed shoes but it never crossed my mind that we’d be walking on expanding metal. Heels were probably not the best choice for that day!

  

We had lunch with Wesley Langdale, president of the company, Andy Stone from Superior Pine Products, and State Representative Chad Nimmer. We always hear about the importance of educating and talking to our local elected officials about the agriculture and forestry industries, and this time was no exception. We take for granted that everyone understands the issues the industry faces, but many legislators don’t come from an agricultural background or are several generations removed from the farm.

After our lunch panel, we traveled to Stripling Irrigation Park in Camilla. It is an irrigation research facility that is part of the University of Georgia. There we learned about the tri-state water wars and the effect it has on Georgia agriculture. Already, water withdrawal permits have been suspended in the southwestern portion of the state. With restricted water availability and the desire to conserve resources, researchers are working to maximize water use efficiency. We learned about variable rate irrigation and other technologies that farmers can utilize to cut their water use.

That night, we stayed at Wynfield Plantation in Albany. It was a beautiful setting. We learned about the importance of the cotton industry from Richey Seaton, director of the Georgia Cotton Commission.

Tuesday morning, we traveled back to Camilla to visit JL Adams Farms and Glass Enterprises. Mark Glass and his wife came back to Camilla in the early 1990s after living in Atlanta for some time. He put in some chicken houses and found that he wanted to make use of the small portion of birds that died before processing. He took the risky move and got 10,000 alligators to farm. Over the following 20 years, he developed his alligator farm into one of the top 10 facilities in the world with over 100,000 alligators on the farm at any one time. He optimizes conditions to ensure that the alligators don’t become aggressive and scratch their hides, grow at a set rate, and produce some of the best hides in the world. He sells his hides for the ultra high end fashion industry for watch straps, purses, clothing, and other accessories for some of the most well-known fashion houses in the world. He also sells his alligator meat to grocery stores.

  

These hides are grade 1, best of the best quality. To make one Hermes Birkin bag, three hides are tanned, dyed, and hand cut and sewn. On average, these bags start out at $30,000 and have a waiting list that is several years long. Mark still has his chicken houses and continues to expand in that area as well. He is a great example of how innovative thinking can turn a waste product into another whole industry.

After our visit to the alligator farm, we travelled to the Albany Civil Rights Institute. We learned about Albany’s influence in the national civil rights movement. I am ashamed to say that I have lived within an hour’s drive of Albany for more than 20 years and had no idea of the history that was there. It is important to recognize the terrible times our country has gone through and how far we have come as a nation.

 

Our final stop was White Oak Pastures. AGL classmate Jenni Harris is the fifth generation to farm White Oak Pastures. They raise pastured beef, poultry (chickens, ducks, guineas, geese, turkeys), rabbits, egg production, and now pork. They have a great operation where they try to have a zero waste facility. They utilize the offal for compost for their organic garden, which feeds their CSA (community-supported agriculture) produce program, and also have an on-farm dining pavilion where we gobbled up (HA! HA!) turkey cacciatore. They employ 85 people and are a great asset to the area.

 

 

I was glad to get home to Wyatt and Justin and share the gifts I picked up for them along the way. Wyatt got a cute White Oak Pastures tee shirt and coloring activity book. I got Justin a rabbit from there that he made into rabbit stew and Jeb got some smoked cow bones. I had a great time and learned a ton. I look forward to getting the gang all back together for our interpersonal communication session in Perry in December!

AG Session 5, Part 3: New York City

On the third leg of our national issues trip, we arrived in New York to find that our route to our hotel was blocked by FDNY trucks no matter which way we turned. In true leadership fashion, Rochelle hopped out of the bus to get cars to move so we could turn around. 

There truly is no other city like New York. It had a cool vibe and was definitely action packed.

 

Our first stop was at Baldor Foods. It is a fresh produce distribution center, which whole fruit and fresh cut fruit to hotels, airlines, restaurants, and retail outlets. We all suited up for food safety with our hair nets, beard nets, and coats.

    

Jim C., as he is affectionately called, is the director of sales and he provided a fast-paced informational tour of the facility and described the process from sales to logistics and distribution.

  

We saw many fruits and vegetables I have never even heard of before: horned melons and dragon fruit.

  

Our group was allowed to taste several fresh fruits. Here is Brent tasting a corn sprout. They were definitely different than anything I have ever tasted before, but with an increasingly global market, food products are coming in and being used in unique ways all the time.

   

We then headed to the Hunts Point Terminal Market, with services most of the Northeast for fresh produce. Ms. Myra Gordon is the executive director and gave us a tour of the facility and was willing to answer our questions.

 

We even found produce that comes from right down the road from my office. 

One of the market stalls we visited had a color sorter for tomatoes that would be used to match up the ripeness of the tomatoes to the clients’ needs.

 

After Hunts Point, we headed to the financial district to learn about commodities and energy trading, food and ag research from a banking perspective, and global investments.  

When we wrapped up our financial session, we were released to spend the last night of our session on our own.

I visited the site of the former World Trade Center. When my family visited in 2004, there was a gaping hole in the ground. Nine years later, Freedom Tower is still under construction and there is a memorial museum in place next to Fire Station 10, the “Ten House” as it’s called.

 

We had dinner and Junior’s “Best Cheesecake in New York” at Grand Central Terminal and wrapped up the night at Times Square.

    

We returned to Atlanta on Wednesday, July 24 with smiles on our faces and brains backed full of new ideas, leadership strategies, and swarming with names and faces of the more than 40 speakers and facilitators we met over ten days.

During our reflection, Rochelle made a good point. While we all have fun on these trips, it is important to thank and appreciate the ones we left behind to keep things running: our partners, children, supervisors, co-workers, friends and family, and of course the donors to our program, the administration that supports it, and Kristi and Rochelle that keeps it running. Their sacrifice to make this program a success should not go unrecognized. I know personally I have had such a strong support network and I couldn’t have done it without them.

AGL Session 5, Part 2: Upstate New York

Day 5 of AGL Session 5 had us flying up to Syracuse, New York. At work, I always hear how people are surprised by how much agriculture we have in Georgia. It’s a great opportunity to tell them about the importance of ag and its effect on our State. I suppose they just assume Georgia is all like Atlanta. I fell prey to similar thinking. I know there is a lot of ag in New York, but it still surprised me when we were flying in how green and lush everything is—especially in July.

  

Our first stop was the New York Ag Experiment Station in Geneva.

We met with four researchers to learn about agriculture in New York. It was interesting to learn that hops are starting to be regrown there. There was a massive disease that wiped out the crop many years ago. Because NY only allows breweries that use 70% or more local products in their state, many microbreweries are driving demand for hops. New varieties of grapes and hops are bred and tested in the field and then processed in the Viticulture & Brewing Lab on campus to determine quality and best practices.

  

We also learned about the Food Venture Lab, where food safety tests are performed and there are new innovative food products generated there regularly. This part was extremely interesting to me because that is a lot of what I do at my job. They are a one stop shop for education about processing, regulation, food safety demonstrations, shelf life testing, and more.

 

I purchased a bottle of the acorn squash seed oil, which was a product of the research conducted there to determine value added products from waste streams. Our oil tasted very strongly of peanuts.

(http://www.wholeheartedfoods.com/pumpkinseed-oil-shop.htm)

Our next stop was at Fox Run Vineyards to learn about the Finger Lakes wine industry. The Finger Lakes area is full of beautiful views no matter where you are. Mr. Scott Osborne, owner, told the group about some of the issues the wine industry faces getting wine sales in grocery stores through the legislative process. He demonstrated the power of interest group lobbies and how the system can be influenced by those groups.

 

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me was his commitment to supporting local businesses. He approached a local company to build his fermenting tanks modeled after European styles. As a result, he said many of the 40+ wineries now purchase their tanks from that company. His commitment to spend several hundred dollars per tank extra for local fabrication keeps his neighbors and friends in business and that money then stays in the community. Sometimes, food producers encourage consumers to shop local, but might often miss the message for their own inputs. It is a great model to follow.

  

Our next stop was Hansen Farms, where we were hosted by Andrew Wright, a graduate of the LEAD NY’s (a similar program to ours) most recent class. We learned that New York has the opposite problem that Georgia has; their crops are getting flooded in the fields, and you probably won’t find a productive corn field that doesn’t have drain tile installed. Hansen Farms’ cabbage operation was just getting ramped up. We learned that consumer cabbage is very different than cabbage used for further processing. These cabbages were very dense and as heavy as bowling balls, as evidenced by Tate below. Hansen Farms utilizes the current H2A program for their labor needs and seemed to agree with most farmers that it is a difficult program to work with, but it is what they need to get their crops planted, tended, and harvested reliably. This further strengthened the argument that workable immigration reform is required for our farmers to stay in business.

  

Following Hansen Farms, we went to Bejo Seeds demonstration plot facility. Mr. Dennis Ferlito (LEAD NY Class 5 participant) showed the group their facility where they grow many of the hundreds of varieties they wholesale throughout the US.

  

The next part of our session was one I was most dreading: home stays. We were all matched with alumni of the LEAD NY program to do home stays overnight. It is unnerving to have to stay with complete strangers in another state without ever having even emailed or talked to them over the phone. Steve Gibson and I were paired with Perry and Sue Dewey. Perry was a member of LEAD NY Class 11. He is a former ag teacher and is now a school administrator.

We started out our homestay touring some more vineyards in the Finger Lakes region and then made our way down to Madison, NY where they lived. Perry and Sue were both so hospitable and accomodating. We went through Ithica where Perry worked as the state director for Ag in the Classroom. We even made a special trip at the local grocery store to pick up some cheese curds (something I had never heard of before then). I told them they must have thought they had just adopted a pair of three year olds because Steve and I didn’t stop asking questions the entire 24 hours we were there except when we were sleeping. We spent the majority of the drive to Madison just seeing farms and asking questions about how NY compares to Georgia.

 

One of the most interesting things I had never thought about: most people in upstate NY don’t have air conditioners; they don’t need it for the most part. I thought this store sign advertising the fact that they have AC was hilarious.

When we got to Perry and Sue’s house, I immediately felt like I was at home. There was hunting gear everywhere, a very enthusiastic and welcoming dog, and taxidermied animals adorning the walls. I really wish my husband Justin could have been with me because he would have loved it all! We even have talked about taking our family vacation up there next year and plan to visit.

   

On our way back to meet up with our group, we traveled up the hills/mountains and saw a wind farm up close. These windmills are used to feed power back into the grid. They don’t look like much, but they are 150 tall and each rotor blade is about 60 feet long.

   

Obligatory note: our mornings were spent watching the news for the “Royal Baby Watch.” Tate kept us all informed and let us know when he was born.

The next stop was the Carrot Barn with Mr. Richard Ball. We learned about diversified ag production (mostly vegetables) and how their farm was flooded in 2011. Just before the flood, Mr. Ball worked with a group of investors from the Bronx, NYC to create a CSA. During the immediate time after the flood, members of that CSA, often those that were even too poor to purchase a full share, volunteered their time to help the families affected recover. I think this is important to note. Because those families participated in a fresh fruit and vegetable program, they were connected to a man they had actually never even met before and wanted to help. Ag is all about connecting people!

   

Our next stop was Maple Down Farms II, owned by class participant Mark Risse’s sister Denise and her husband Dave Lloyd. Their farm produces 75% of its income through milk for the Cabot production facility. The other 25% comes from breeding and harvesting of eggs and embryos for breeding purposes. They were also negatively impacted by the flood of 2011. We got to spend some hands on time with the cows in the milking barn and learned about feed mixes, best practices, and animal health and welfare.

     

Our final stop in upstate was at Crist Bros. Orchards. We met with Ms. Jennifer Crist who is the fifth generation of the family in the business. We visited the construction site for their new cooler and learned about the latest technology being used for their facility. We also got to see new orchards that have been put in of a brand new variety of apples that was developed in the Geneva research station. These trees are grown on high tension wires similar to those used for Georgia olive production. The idea is to have a wall of fruit that will speed harvest and create more uniformity. Another interesting thing on the farm is the use of high deer restricting fences. Jennifer said that the losses they experienced due to deer eating the apples in four or five years were about equal to the cost of the fencing and they have more than made their money back from the investment. Finally, we wrapped up the visit with a box full of fresh cherries that were fabulous!