Browse Agriculture Policy Stories - Page 14

Matthew Roher, chef and owner of Cha Bella restaurant in Savannah, says local is better, and he wants to connect Georgians to local producers of fine food.

World population is swelling like a slow-moving tidal wave. In the past decade, the world’s population increased by almost 1 billion. Within the next four decades, experts expect the wave to grow by 50 percent, increasing to 9.4 billion people.

In the shadow of a rundown block building in Los Palis, Haiti, children wearing tattered clothes bit into half-ripened mangoes they picked from the ground and wondered about the strange men toiling around in the field.

Outrage from recent food safety incidents – which range from E. coli in spinach to salmonella in peanut paste and jalapeño and serrano peppers – has driven state and national leaders to take action, making the coming year one for some major food policy changes, said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Ga.

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences will host its fourth annual Ag Forecast Breakfast Series 7:30 a.m. -10 a.m. Jan. 25 in Rome, Jan. 26 in Gainesville, Jan. 27 in Statesboro, Jan. 28 in Tifton and Jan. 29 in Macon. Participants will hear from farm and food safety experts and be able to ask them questions.

Nearly 15 percent of the food Americans eat is imported from other countries, mostly from Canada, Mexico and China. This may sound like a small percentage, but it represents 80 percent of seafood and 45 percent of fresh fruit consumed in the U.S. A University of Georgia expert says increased food imports bring new challenges to ensuring a safe U.S. food supply.

Farmers with physical disabilities are often a little too self-reliant to ask for help or don't know where to find it. But help is out there. Soon, they’ll have an entire farm dedicated to equipment and training especially designed to help them farm more comfortably.

A pecan-loving disease enjoyed Georgia’s wet summer weather and is now blamed for cutting what was expected to be a large crop, says a University of Georgia pecan specialist. But farmers still expect to have an “on” year.

In an industry slowly fading in Georgia, tobacco growers got a recent kick in the pants when their major purchaser announced it would no longer buy from them.

A recent University of Georgia report shows that Georgia farmers will need 20 percent more water to grow their crops in the next four decades. They’ll need it to meet increased food demand and to compete globally.