By Clint Thompson
Members of Georgia’s Senate and House of Representatives met on Thursday for the Joint Ag Issues Summit in Perry, Georgia. The summit also served as the inaugural meeting of the Joint Study Committee on the Generational Sustainability of Family Farms with future meetings scheduled for Rome, Douglas and Athens.
Senator Russ Goodman (R-Cogdell), chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, and Representative Robert Dickey (R-Musella), chairman of the House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, hosted the summit at the Perry Fairgrounds.
Goodman talked about its significance.
Sen. Goodman
“The work we do in the legislature, the policies that we enact and the legislation that we enact, it affects rural communities all over the state. When you serve in the legislature, you have the unique viewpoint of being able to see how the decisions that are made in Atlanta affect how they have real world implications on the family farm,” Goodman said. “We are citizen legislators. We’re not full-time legislators. These study committees are very important where we can come together when we’re out of session. We’re in session from the middle of January to the first of April. We bring in these experts in their field and get the testimony. I have found that some of the best legislation we’ve ever enacted since my time in legislature comes from just every day hardworking Georgians, and I think that that’s where these study committees play a vital role.
‘Doing What We Can’
“And also, it’s just like anything else, putting your head together. We’re putting our heads together and figuring out what we can do. So much of it does get affected on the federal level. But we’ve got a lot of bright folks that are looking at this stuff. We’re exploring what other states have done. Commissioner (Tyler) Harper and I were talking about it last night about a bill that was done in Ohio that we’ve been looking at. We’ve been looking at some bills that were done in Nebraska. We’re just doing what we can.
“It’s like I tell my boys all the time, you can’t change the world, but you can do your part to help change the world around you. I can’t affect what goes on in Washington, D.C., but our role as state legislators, we have the ability to, at least on the state level, try to explore ways that we can help our family farmers stay in business.”