January 27, 2016
www.gfb.org
Vol. 34 No. 4
GROWERS GET INDUSTRY UPDATES AT GA PEANUT FARM SHOW More than 1,400 Georgia peanut growers traveled to Tifton, Jan. 21 for the 40th Annual Georgia Peanut Farm Show & Conference held at the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center. The Georgia Peanut Commission sponsored the event in cooperation with the UGA Tifton Campus and Southeastern Peanut Farmer magazine. Show attendees had the chance to view the products and services of more than 100 agribusinesses and equipment companies displaying their products and services at the trade show. During lunch, attendees received legislative updates from U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop and Austin Scott and Washington lobbyist Bob Redding, met newly installed GFB President Gerald Long, got an update from Georgia Commissioner Gary Black and heard from National Peanut Board staffer Cathy Johnson. “You need to be active politically on peanut issues,” said Rep. Scott, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee. Scott identified securing federal estate tax reform, defending the use of biotechnology in agriculture and maintaining national security as his three top priority issues. Bishop, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said fewer members of the U.S. House represent rural areas, which makes it harder to garner support for ag programs. “Ag programs are under attack by people who don’t understand where groceries come from.” Redding said issues the peanut industry should watch this year are: amendments proposed by members of Congress to the appropriations bill that impact peanut programs, especially crop insurance funding or tha impact generic commodity certificates for repaying cotton and peanut loans included in the 2016 Omnibus bill in December. Redding said his firm is also closely following international trade agreements, which could help provide more markets for U.S. peanuts. In an interview with GFB media, Redding discussed efforts underway to get the USDA to
raise the moisture level it uses to grade farmer stock peanuts as SEG2's from 2.49 percent to 3.49 percent. Georgia Farm Bureau policy supports this effort and the organization got policy approved by American Farm Bureau supporting the effort. “It would be nice if we could just go to the USDA and say we want to make the change, but it requires data to back up our request,” Redding said. “Stanley Fletcher (peanut economist) is compiling data for Georgia, which will be ready in about a month, but we also have to collect data for the national peanut belt, which will take longer.” Redding said he’s hopeful the change might be in place for grading the 2016 crop but -continued on next page