Agriculture and How it Is Important to Georgia

Agriculture defines Georgia's character and way of life, and has throughout the history of the state. "With a contribution of more than $72.5 billion annually to Georgia's $786.5 billion economy, agriculture is the main driver of the state's economic engine," (University of Georgia Cooperative Extension). Since the days where plantation owners capitalized on slave labor to 21st century advancements in agriculture technology, Georgia has been an American agricultural leader. Agriculture remains a primary source of employment for many Georgians. As many as one out of every seven Georgia residents currently work in agriculture-related sectors including the forestry services (University of Georgia Cooperative Extension). Moreover, a large portion of the state's fertile lands have been set aside for agriculture and because of its natural endowments, Georgia is set to remain a national leader in agriculture and agro-businesses. The private and public sectors should continue to invest in Georgia's agricultural sector because of the promise of agriculture to Georgia's ongoing economic growth, and because agriculture is part and parcel of the cultural identity of the state's residents.

Many of Georgia's agricultural products are associated with the state's core brand as a leader in the production of peanuts, peaches, and pecans: a sort of holy trinity of agricultural products in the state. However, Georgia is also well-known for important brands of products like Vidalia onions. Were it not for the endowments of human and financial resources by the public and private sector throughout the centuries of the state's history, these products might not have reached the pinnacle of their development for freshness and flavor. Furthermore, the investments from the private and public sector over the past several centuries have led to the state of Georgia becoming synonymous with products like peaches, pecans, and peanuts. Georgia is no longer the nation's leading producer of peaches, but the state remains closely connected in the public consciousness with quality peaches.

Peanuts are particularly important to the Georgia brand, identity, culture, and economy. Also known as goobers or groundnuts, peanuts have been grown and harvested in Georgia since the days of slave labor. Now that the ugliness of Georgia's past is put behind it, peanuts can now be cultivated with low wage instead of slave labor, leading to a more sustainable model of economic growth and leaving the potential for the emergence of social justice somewhere in the state's future. Similarly, Georgia continues to produce a large portion of the nation's cotton -- ranking second among all states (Flatt). Cotton had been a mainstay of the state's slave-based economic model and remains a potent part of its agricultural business model. Yet without slave labor, the state of Georgia and its agricultural producers need government protection in the form of favorable laws and institutions. The state's agriculture businesses also need ongoing and generous endowments from public and private sector investors, to help promote agricultural development. With renewed interest in Georgia's economic sector, the state may become a world leader in developing agricultural technologies as revolutionary as Eli Whitney's cotton gin, which was of course invented in Georgia (Flatt).