By Clint Thompson
Georgia’s connections to the Trump administration provides hope to one Georgia vegetable producer that legislative leaders will provide solutions to their plethora of problems.
Doug Collins was recently confirmed as Trump’s Veterans Affairs secretary. He is a Georgia native and previously served in the Georgia and U.S. House of Representatives. Kelly Loeffler was Trump’s nominee to lead the Small Business Administration. She previously served as U.S. senator from Georgia from 2020 to 2021.
That doesn’t even include Sonny Perdue, Trump’s Ag secretary during his first term, who is now the Chancellor of the University System of Georgia.
Georgia specialty crop producers finally have allies in their corner.
“We’re excited about some of those relationships that maybe we can lean on to help on some of the problems that we have going forward,” said Sam Watson, president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
Watson and the rest of Georgia’s fruit and vegetable growers have their share of challenges that are getting harder to overcome. The main concern centers on ag labor and the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR). It increased this year to $16.08 and has increased by 31% over the past three years. It’s proving too much of a mountain to scale for those specialty crop producers.
“We can’t take any more at all. This one is really going to hurt. The last increase hurt pretty bad, but obviously this one is going to be even greater than that one,” Watson said. “We just want a level playing field. I don’t mind paying $16 an hour, $16.08, whatever it’s going to be, but when my competition doesn’t have to pay that and they don’t have to house people and they don’t have to pay their transportation, provide them with insurance and all the things we have to do; it’s just not a level playing field.
“We’re already losing growers just due to hurricanes, due to the economy, input costs and then you’ve got labor on top of it, which is our largest expense; it’s not good for our industry. It’s not good for the American consumer. It’s not good for anybody, in general.
“If we don’t get this fixed, I don’t know how many growers we’re going to have left.”
New Ag Commissioner
Georgia farmers are also banking on newly-confirmed Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins to provide assistance. Georgia Ag Commissioner Tyler Harper issued a statement following Rollins being sworn into office.
“Congratulations to Brooke Rollins on her confirmation as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary Rollins understands farm values and will be a fighter for American agriculture and rural America. I look forward to working with her and President Trump to empower American farmers, level the playing field with our foreign competitors, and Make American Agriculture Great Again,” Harper said.