Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: Fresh From Florida Gives Growers Big Marketing Boost

Clint ThompsonFlorida, Specialty Crop Grower Magazine

By Frank Giles Specialty crop growers have a great story to tell and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to offer consumers. From roadside stands to popular retail outlets, there’s many ways to market and sell produce. Most states provide growers with an opportunity to join their special marketing programs. This year, Specialty Crop Grower will be featuring these …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: IR-4 Working Behind Scenes for Producers

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

The Last WordBy Kristen Searer-Jones Think of IR-4 as a cloaked superhero — often unseen but doing critical work for the specialty crop community. For over 60 years, IR-4 has developed the data required for registrations of safe, effective pest management products for specialty crop growers. Driven by growers’ priorities, IR-4’s research supports healthy harvests, economic growth, agricultural livelihoods, affordable …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: Taking the Message to Washington

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

Up FrontBy Frank Giles We’ve preached to the choir and shouted from the rooftops about the importance of growers being active advocates on their behalf and making their voices heard by lawmakers at local, state and federal levels. That message is always important but probably now more than ever. With the Trump administration in place and a flurry of activity …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: Putting an Agritourism Plan in Place

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

By Frank Giles With inflated input costs and tight profit margins in recent years, some specialty crop growers have sought to diversify their businesses to generate new revenue streams and to spread risks. Agritourism has been the choice for some farms. Agritourism encompasses several categories, including you-pick, direct-to-consumer retail sales, and venue space for weddings and other events. Growers considering …

Sneak Peek: March 2025 Specialty Crop Grower Magazine

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

The cover story of the March issue of Specialty Crop Grower Magazine highlights whiteflies and how they can devastate vegetables with the viruses they transmit. Weather can contribute to the severity of whitefly infestations. In 2016 and 2017, weather conditions were hot and dry which led to whitefly populations spiraling out of control. Multiple university researchers talked about the pest …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: AEWR Increases Threaten Food Security

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

By Tyler Harper It’s no secret that 2024 was a difficult year for Georgia’s No. 1 industry and farm families across our state. Inflation, sky-high input costs, depressed commodity prices, an unlevel playing field with our foreign competitors and bad policy coming from D.C. are among the reasons U.S. net farm income has declined by upward of $40 billion over …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: Corbett Brothers Expanding Amid Increased Challenges

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

By Clint Thompson If your farming operation isn’t growing, it’s shrinking. That’s the Corbett family motto that’s been passed down from generation to generation. The philosophy serves as the basis for Justin Corbett, who operates Corbett Brothers Farms in Lake Park, Georgia, with his brother Jared. While some specialty crop farms are operating in survival mode due to increased input …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: Calls to Adjust H-2A Wage Rate Method

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

By Frank Giles Inflation has hit everyone’s pocketbook in recent years, but the agriculture sector has felt the squeeze more acutely than most. Increasing costs have impacted the H-2A visa program, which many specialty crop growers now rely on to source labor. For the past few years, significant increases in the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR) have been imposed on …

Specialty Crop Grower Magazine: Mass Deportation Concerns Specialty Crop Growers

Clint ThompsonSpecialty Crop Grower Magazine

The changing of administrations could have significant ramifications on workforce availability for specialty crop producers. President Donald Trump emphasized deportation of undocumented immigrants as part of his election strategy. If this happens, fruit and vegetable farmers could feel the sting of a shrinking labor pool since the specialty crop sector is reliant on an international workforce. Fewer workers for ag …