September 2, 2026
www.gfb.org
Vol. 8 No. 17
HARPER OFFERS SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE TOPICS TO CONSIDER Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper offered his take on the challenges facing Georgia’s farmers during the first meeting of the Joint Committee on the Generational Sustainability of Family Farms, held Aug. 20 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter in Perry. “Our responsibility isn’t simply to preserve the industry,” Harper said. “Our responsibility is to make sure that there is an agricultural industry worth inheriting for the generations behind us.” Harper laid out seven key issues for the committee to consider: • Consolidation and competition. Harper pointed out that 85% of the beef in the U.S. is packed by four companies, two of which (JBS USA and National Beef Packing Company) are owned by foreign entities, and 40% of the pork is packed by one Chinese company, which purchased Smithfield Foods in 2013. “Of the five biggest players in the protein market, three of them are owned by foreign corporations,” Harper said. “That’s a problem. We’ve got to work on it on the Washington [national] level, but I think we’ve got to really take a serious look at this on the state level to see if there’s a way that we can play into this.” For instance, in May Harper asked the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an antitrust investigation into the merger between Sysco and Restaurant Depot earlier this year, saying that the deal would further weaken the U.S. food supply chain and increase costs for American restaurants and their customers. “We don’t need less competition,” he said. “We need more competition in the marketplace. When our farmers have fewer buyers, input suppliers and fewer competitors and fewer choices, consumers … have fewer options.” • Expanding foreign & domestic markets. Last year, Georgia growers shipped peaches to Mexico for the first time in almost three decades, which Harper called a huge win for Georgia’s peach producers. “The best farm program is a profitable market,” Harper said. “We’ve got to increase market access.”