Georgia Organics: Farm to Restaurant Campaign

This work is being funded by a USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Local Food Promotion Program grant that I wrote. I’m excited to see it in action.

Application Deadline: March 4, 2019 11:59 pm

Description
For the next three years, Georgia Organics will embark on a Farm to Restaurant campaign to increase the domestic consumption and sales from local organic farms in Georgia to restaurants in metro Atlanta.  Georgia Organics will work with farmers to provide them with the business management, post-harvest handling, and record-keeping tools that enable them to become “restaurant-ready” in addition to creating a branding campaign that recognizes Atlanta restaurants for supporting Georgia’s small sustainable farms.

Timeline
Georgia Organics will accept cohorts each year of the campaign with applications opening in January. Applicants considered for the campaign are subject to requests for additional information and farm visits from Georgia Organics staff.  Farmer cohorts will be announced by mid-March.

Application Submission Options

You can submit your application by completing the online application below or submitting the downloadable application by email to Organic Procurement Coordinator Lauren Cox at laurencox@georgiaorganics.org.

Divergent Land Values in Midwest, Southeast

Source: USDA NASS

My little story on land values and land rents in the agricultural economic downturn is up over at Growing Georgia. It's a quick read (hint: Southeast prices are holding on). What's not there, however, are all of the supporting graphs. There are also some highly important maps that show the fundamental ways that Midwest farming and Southeast farming are structured differently. In short, farmers in the Corn Belt rent a lot more land, which — just by sheer numbers — makes them more likely to walk away from land with high cash rents. Farmers in the Southeast, particularly Georgia, have more irrigation and a lot more investment in their fields. That land is a pretty sure bet to produce and too expensive to set aside. 

Maps and data are below:

Source: USDA NASS, 2012 Census of Agriculture

Source: Changes in Southern Cotton and Peanut Producing Regions, Shelbi R. Knisley, USDA-ERS

Source: 2015 Farmland Value Survey, Iowa State University, University Extension