Cart (0)
business newsGeorgia Peaches Bruised by Budget Cuts
By
Justin Rohrlich
Aug 01, 2011 3:15 pm
"The writing's on the wall -- we'll never again have someone at the University of Georgia who is 100% dedicated to peaches," says the head of UGA's Horticulture Department.
PRINT
 |
|
In fact, Georgia’s peach program still exists, Dr. Douglas Bailey, the head of Georgia’s Department of Horticulture, tells Minyanville. However, budget cuts have had a severe effect on the state of the peach in The Peach State.
“We’re going to try and make some adjustments as people retire, but things won’t ever be the same,” he says.
Bailey emphasizes that the university is “still offering support” to Georgia’s peach growers but “not nearly as much as what we could offer in the past.”
“Last month, we were forced to close out our entire peach research and extension program on a USDA tree nut station in Byron, just south of Macon,” Bailey explains. “We’ll never be able to replace that.”
Though Georgia ranks third (behind South Carolina and California) in terms of overall peach production, the fruit -- which was first introduced to the Georgia coast by Franciscan monks in 1571 -- is as inextricably linked to Georgia as the Dodgers are to Brooklyn, or steel is to Pittsburgh.
Okay, bad examples. But Bailey says that an era has indeed ended.
“The writing’s on the wall -- we’ll never again have someone at the University of Georgia who is 100% dedicated to peaches,” he says.
This has Bailey and his colleagues scrambling to plug holes that seem to be multiplying exponentially.
“We’ll likely merge peaches with blueberries,” he says. “It’s not the best solution, but we’ve got to do something.”
Of course, Georgia’s combined peach/blueberry program presents its own set of challenges.
“The blueberry industry is the most rapidly growing horticultural component in Georgia right now; it’s over $100 million annually,” Bailey says. “We’ve already lost that specialist and researcher and haven’t been able to get the position back.”
Meanwhile, Bailey and his colleagues are doing what they can to keep the peach industry’s metaphorical head above water.
“We recently brought in a part-time county extension agent, just to put out peach fires,” Bailey says. “And we still have our peach entomologist, so… I just hope we’ll eventually be able to provide the same services to the peach industry that we once did.”
In any case, now is hardly the time to weaken Georgia’s peach program.
As a Georgia Department of Agriculture employee (who wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) told the New York Times last week, “I understand unofficially that the best and the most tasty peaches are in Spartanburg County in South Carolina.”
No positions in stocks mentioned.
The information on this website solely reflects the analysis of or opinion about the performance of securities and financial markets by the writers whose articles appear on the site. The views expressed by the writers are not necessarily the views of Minyanville Media, Inc. or members of its management. Nothing contained on the website is intended to constitute a recommendation or advice addressed to an individual investor or category of investors to purchase, sell or hold any security, or to take any action with respect to the prospective movement of the securities markets or to solicit the purchase or sale of any security. Any investment decisions must be made by the reader either individually or in consultation with his or her investment professional. Minyanville writers and staff may trade or hold positions in securities that are discussed in articles appearing on the website. Writers of articles are required to disclose whether they have a position in any stock or fund discussed in an article, but are not permitted to disclose the size or direction of the position. Nothing on this website is intended to solicit business of any kind for a writer's business or fund. Minyanville management and staff as well as contributing writers will not respond to emails or other communications requesting investment advice.
Copyright 2011 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2011 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
