2011 Spring/Summer Harvest Survey Click here to complete the survey  The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, in cooperation with a number of other agricultural organizations, is asking for your assistance to provide crop production data related to your 2011 spring/ summer harvest. GFVGA has commissioned the University of Georgia - Center for Agribusiness Development to study the data we collect and analyze the economic impact of the 2011 spring/summer harvest on our farms and rural communities. In addition, the study will estimate the economic impact on state and local tax revenues from the purchase of goods and services during

Marketplace, Thursday, June 16, 2011 In response to the state's new strict immigration law, and the shortage of farmers that followed, Georgia governor Nathan Deal has proposed allowing probationers to fill the void on farms. Peaches. (Adriene Hill/Marketplace) Kai Ryssdal: The state of Georgia's got a tough new immigration law about to go into effect. It's making life harder for farmers in the Peach State. A survey not too long ago found they're short about 11,000 workers, jobs most commonly filled by immigrants, both legal and not. The news has brought an interesting proposal from Georgia governor Nathan Deal. How

  Click HERE for VIDEO and original article LESLIE, Ga.-- "It's a little heated out here," said Jaquis Jones as he stood in a dusty Sumter County field. For most of the men here, this was a first. They'd never before worked in an agricultural field - never even considered it until Tuesday. "This is the hardest work I've ever done," said Maurice Evans, a first-timer. Nineteen men started work here at dawn, a majority of them, probationers from the state Department of Corrections. By lunchtime, eight had quit. They get paid fifty cents per bucket of cucumbers -or at

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN // // ]]>June 15, 2011 12:13 p.m. Atlanta (CNN) -- With Georgia's new law cracking down on illegal immigration only weeks away from going into effect, the state's governor proposed a new solution Tuesday for growers worried about labor shortages: hiring people on criminal probation. Gov. Nathan Deal said in a statement Tuesday that he had asked the state's agriculture and corrections commissioners to connect unemployed probationers with farm jobs. "I believe this would be a great partial solution to our current status as we continue to move towards sustainable results with the legal

By John Derbyshire June 7, 2011  1:16 P.M. If you’ve ever worked on a farm, said the late Ken Galbraith (who knew), nothing else ever seems like work. Here’s a lady who obviously agrees. We’re in Georgia here, and the background to the story is: [Governor Nathan] Deal is looking for ways to fill a farm worker gap after some areas lost more than 50 percent of their laborers, the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association said. Many workers left Georgia after the governor signed an Arizona-inspired immigration law allowing local police to identify and detain illegal immigrants, the group