The State of the Magazine

by LeeAnna Tatum

It’s hard to believe, but we are halfway into our fourth year of publication for Southern Soil! Our first issue was published in 2018 and we have produced 18 more issues since then.

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is LeeAnna Tatum and I am the founder, editor and publisher of Southern Soil. I also write much of the content, manage our social media, sell advertising … well, you get the idea.

But by no means am I doing this alone.

My talented sister, Kelly White, is a graphic designer with a couple of decades of experience to her credit. She is more than simply the Art Director for Southern Soil; she has been incredibly supportive of my dream and my vision, and more importantly, she has brought her own passion to the business with her commitment to helping small business owners build their brand identity.

I was also very fortunate to meet with Rebekah Faulk Lingenfelser in the early stages of developing the magazine. She has been such an enthusiastic supporter since that very first day and I’m so grateful for the voice she brings to the local food conversation.

When I first approached her about the possibility of writing for the magazine, I told her that I needed someone to fill the “fun extrovert” void in the content that I knew I would never be able to fill! And she has done a great job of doing that over the years.

I have also really enjoyed the collaboration with the wonderful people of the Coastal Plains Chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society. They have put in a lot of effort to share with us their knowledge and appreciation for our local plant life. I’ve learned so much through their articles and I always look forward to reading them.

I’m so grateful to have had a number of fantastic contributors who have each brought their own unique perspective to the table and have enriched the conversation immensely. Thank you to each of you!

Though Southern Soil is not yet financially sustainable (it is not earning enough advertising revenue to cover the annual expenses including any salaries), we continue to bring the stories of our local food systems because of the support of our faithful advertisers!

I cannot thank them enough for the support they have shown over the years. Not only helping this fledgling small business, but also paying it forward by helping so many other small businesses in our communities get the attention they deserve through our articles and content.

The Sentient Bean in Savannah, Halyards Restaurant Group on St Simons, Way Green in Waycross and my local bank, The Claxton Bank came on board as advertisers when we were just getting off the ground and were building our audience from scratch.

Georgia Sea Grill, Brighter Day and Down South House and Home have been amazing in their support as well. And our 2021 feature article sponsors are awesome: The Salt Table, Exclusive Engravings and Longwood Plantation.

For every business that placed even one ad with us over the years, know that it has made an impact and we are grateful! We hope it was a positive and prosperous experience for you.

If you have a business in the area (we cover 46 counties), I would love to discuss advertising opportunities with you and let you know how we can help you connect with some pretty awesome conscientious consumers who love supporting local businesses!

By advertising with us, you not only promote your own business but you are also helping other small businesses here in Southeast Georgia and you’re making a positive influence on the local economy and the local environment. I truly believe it’s a win-win-win arrangement, because a stronger, more sustainable community benefits us all.

It has been my privilege to meet, interview, get to know and work with some truly remarkable people over the past three and a half years and to get a good look at our local food systems.

When I was first looking into starting this magazine, I honestly didn’t know if I would find enough to write about to fill one issue! But here I am well into my fourth year and I find that nearly every encounter opens the door to another avenue of discovery.

It’s easy to get discouraged here in Southeast Georgia when it comes to local food. Many of us (certainly including myself in this) live in rural areas where fresh local food is hard to find. Conventional farming is still King here and it is evident at every turn.

Commercial chicken houses, row after row of commodity crops, few grocery stores, even fewer farmers’ markets. People looking at you like you might just be from Mars if you mention words like “organic”, “sustainable” or “pasture raised.”

But I want you to know that you should take heart!

There is hope. There are more people than you probably imagine that are out here everyday in your communities working hard to improve our local food. People who, just like you, know that there is a better way to bring food to the table. People who also understand the unique and critical connection between food, body, spirit and the soil itself.

Over the years, I have learned that we have an amazingly diverse food system right here in our own backyards. In Southeast Georgia, we can grow blueberries almost without even trying. We have access to a vast array of seafood right off our shores. Our long growing season makes us vulnerable to weeds and pests but also provides ample temperate weather for growing food all year long. And pasture-raised animals thrive in our climate (with adequate accommodations). The pandemic brought many flaws within the US food system to light and made people sit up and take notice. Many, for the first time in their lives, started looking at where their food actually comes from and weren’t too happy with what they saw. And many turned to local supplies when their usual sources fell through.

While some of those people simply returned to shopping as usual once supply lines were restored, others who had experienced local food for the first time out of necessity have chosen to continue sourcing locally.

I honestly believe that the more people know about our current industrialized system and the more they learn about how different some of our local farmers are doing things, the more they will choose to support farms that are using sustainable, regenerative and humane methods.

And that’s why I continue to do what I do. To educate and encourage consumers to think about the real-world consequences that their food purchases have. And to encourage those working hard to change our food system that the work they are doing is not in vain and they are not alone!

But Southern Soil was never intended to be a one way street. It’s meant to be a platform - a table, if you will - to gather people together to have important conversations about food and sustainability.

This is where you come in! I feel that in many ways, we are right on target where I would want us to be. We have established ourselves in Southeast Georgia and are putting out quality content and growing our audience every day.

Which is great! But I want more.

I want more engagement. I want more input. I want more give and take. I want Southern Soil to go from being a good source of information, to being an essential tool in the growing local food movement.

That’s what Southern Soil has always been about for me - growing the local food movement!

That’s why I have included on our website a directory of local sustainable farms. I use the term “sustainable” to describe any farm that is not using chemical fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides, not engaging in confined animal feeding operations, using humane husbandry methods with livestock, and working toward improving the life and health of the soil on which they farm.

Some of these farms are certified by different organizations, some are not. Some refer to themselves as regenerative or organic or sustainable. Some use integrated pest control or hydroponic growing systems or certified organic inputs, or integration of livestock. But they all are committed to growing food that is healthier for our bodies and for the earth than what our conventional farming is doing.

And I’m all for that.

As a consumer myself, I wanted to create the website that I was looking for. I wanted ONE place where I could find farms near me that were producing the kind of foods I wanted to eat.

But what I found was that I had to look through lots of different websites because the sites that listed farms only listed the farms that were members of their organization. An organization those farms had to pay to be a part of. And as a consumer, I was not interested in what membership fees a farm could afford.

And as a champion of small businesses, I was not interested in creating yet another site that would require fees in order to be included.

So, our directory exists to help consumers find farms near them that are doing their best to grow great food without causing harm to (and in fact most often helping) the environment, using humane animal husbandry practices, and refraining from the use of harmful chemicals.

I also wanted a site that would help me find restaurants that source their foods from the same kinds of farms that I do. So, I included them as well!

I feel like this is one area of Southern Soil that has not been utilized to its fullest potential. I would like this directory to be comprehensive and to stay up to date. For this, I need your help! I am just one person and can’t possibly discover all the farms and restaurants that should be listed on this directory. So, please feel free to contact me and let me know if there is a place that should be added or perhaps that doesn’t need to be included any longer.

That about sums up where we are! Where are we headed? Look for us to continue our coverage of local farms and restaurants and sustainable businesses! We are definitely growing and we are excited to continue to reach more people and share more perspectives.

Here are a few things that you can do (right now!) that won’t cost you a dime and will help us tremendously as we work hard to help grow our local food movement!

1. Go to our homepage! If you have not already signed up for our email list, you should be prompted to do so (if not, there is a “subscribe” link that you can click on). You will NOT be spammed by us with loads of emails. By the time I have written and published the magazine, I’m all wrote out (written out? Writ out?) … I’m done. I am trying to work up to sending out two

emails per month, right now I send out about 6 per year. I will not be flooding your inbox. 2. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram 3. ENGAGE on Facebook and Instagram.

Unless you yourself run a business and must administer social media accounts, you may not be aware that it has become increasingly difficult for small businesses to communicate with their followers on social media. I won’t go into all the details, but here’s the takeaway - if you don’t engage with a page (i.e. react to posts by “liking” “loving” … yada, yada; comment on posts; or share posts) you will stop seeing posts from that page on your newsfeed. Even if you have liked and followed that page - the content will simply not make it into your life unless you actually go to that page and look at it intentionally. So here’s what I do when I’m scrolling .... I react to pretty much everything I see in my newsfeed that was posted by a small business that I know. I do that because I know it helps them reach more people and it costs me absolutely nothing but the move of a finger on a screen.

4. SHARE our magazine links. If you enjoy the content we offer in our digital magazine, please share it! There is a chance that a friend or family member will also get something good out of it and it helps us get the word out and increase our audience. And it’s FREE.

5. Provide feedback! I’d love to hear from you.

I’d like to know if you like what you’re getting.

I’d like to know if you’d like to get something a little different. Do you have a great story idea?

Let me know. Do you yourself have something important to say? Let me know. I’m an introvert, so I don’t often say “the more, the merrier”; but in this case I do! The more input, the better.

The more voices we can have at the table, the better the conversation. Add your voice!

6. If you have a brick and mortar location or regularly set up a booth at farmers’ markets or pop-up markets and would like to share Southern Soil with your customers, please send me an email and request some information cards. I will happily get some to you!

If you read the magazine and would like to help financially, please consider donating the amount of your favorite print subscription or entertainment service subscription. If we had even $10 from everyone who reads the magazine, it would make a tremendous impact on our ability to continue this work.

I’ve established a GoFundMe account to make it simple to donate, but if you’d prefer donating with a different method, please send us an email: info@southernsoil.org.

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey!