Tag Archives: farm

Land is not just money: appeal tax valuations today




Appeal today
if you think there’s more to land (or business)
and woods and fields and streams than money,
unlike the Tax Assessors, whose revaluation would drive development
into agricultural areas of the county where it doesn’t belong,
while avoiding populated areas such as the south side of Valdosta.
We can expect pipeline companies and utilities from other states
to think nothing of pillaging our lands for their profit.
We shouldn’t expect that of our neighbors whom we elected Tax Asssessors.
If you have affection for your land, your county, your neighborhood,
today’s the deadline

to appeal your valuation
.
And there will be an election later.

As Wendell Berry said,



Whatever has happened in what economists call “the
economy,” it is generally true that the land economy has been
discounted or ignored.

Are the Tax Assessors boomers?
Are you a sticker?
Wendell Berry explains: Continue reading

Alapahoochee Historic Farm Heritage Days 2015-04-10


300x413 Flyer, in Alapahoochee Historic Farm Heritage Days, by John S. Quarterman, 10 April 2015

25th Semi-Annual Alapahoochee Historic Farm/Heritage Days will take
place April 10-11 from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Located at
202 Bethel Church Road in Echols County.

Here’s

their flyer
on their facebook page. Continue reading

Sabal Trail pipeline disruptive for what gain? –Valdosta Today

The same Monday that
the Dougherty County Commission passed a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline
,


Valdosta Today editorialized against it.

S.E. (Chip) Harp, Valdosta Today Editor, 27 October 2014,

Proposed Pipeline will Disrupt south Georgia, but for What Gain?
,

SASSER — The proposed (and likely) Sabal Trail natural gas
pipeline will impact most residents in south Georgia, bringing
additional natural gas supplies to Florida “while increasing
the diversity and reliability of the region’s energy-delivery system
and positively impacting the economy in the Southeast, specifically
Alabama, Georgia and Florida”, per Sabal Trail reports.

However, as has been seen already, it will also have a negative
impact on many area businesses, landowners and residents, especially
agricultural-based businesses. One of those affected is produce and Continue reading

Alapahoochee Antique Tractor Show & Historic Farm Heritage Days


Logo, in Alapahoochee Antique Tractor Show & Historic Farm Heritage Days, by Lake Park Chamber of Commerce, 24 October 2014

That’s a Lake Park postal address, but the street address
is actually in Echols County.
Received from

Lake Park Chamber of Commerce
. yesterday. -jsq


300x490 Flyer, in Alapahoochee Antique Tractor Show & Historic Farm Heritage Days, by Lake Park Chamber of Commerce, 24 October 2014

ALAPAHOOCHEE

HISTORIC FARM / HERITAGE DAYS

DOWN HOME FAMILY REUNION

OCTOBER 1424 – 25, 2014 (FRI/SAT)

9 AM-4 PM

ECHOLS COUNTY, 202 BETHEL CHURCH ROAD.

LAKE PARK. GA 31636

Preserving Echols County & Area Heritage of 1900’s

  • Non-profit
  • NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ALLOWED
  • Free admission

Continue reading

What are they going to put for a buffer for farms at Nottinghill —Calvin Marshall @ LCC 12 July 2011

Neighboring landowner demolishes developers’ arguments; explains agriculture to Lowndes County Comission.



Neighboring landowner Calvin Marshall,
speaking against rezoning for

REZ-2011-10 Nottinghill
,
said neighbors,

“We’re not interested in a Bluepool,
We’re not interested in a Chatham Place.
And we’re certainly not interested in what they built out on Val Del Road.
We’ve also looked at what they’ve done with Old Pine,
and we’re definitely not interested in that, either.
Too small lots, small homes.”

That last one is presumably

Glen Laurel
,
which had a roomful of neighbors opposing it last year.

Calvin Marshall asked for the Commissioners to deny the Nottinghill
rezoning request.

He also asked:

“The other thing that we asked the developer … what you going to do about
the neighbors that have got a farm on each side?
What kind of buffer are you going to put there?



We farm that land, we grow crops,
we run cows,
we run goats,
we run hogs,
and we’re going to continue to do that.



We don’t have an answer as to what they’re going to do for a buffer.”

Calvin Marshall continued with the economic argument:

“There’s three or four generations of property owners in this room tonight.
These people go back for three or four generations.
And these people have worked hard.

Continue reading

HB 87 getting press in Mexico

Famous not just in France, but also in Mexico!
Georgia’s HB 87 gets press south of the border.

El Universal of Mexico City reported from Atlanta 27 June 2011,

Juez bloquea partes de ley migratoria de Georgia

Un juez federal concedió este lunes la solicitud de impedir que partes
de la ley de Georgia contra la inmigración ilegal entren en vigor hasta
que se resuelva una demanda.

El juez Thomas Thrash bloqueó partes de la legislación que penaliza a
la gente que transporte o albergue a indocumentados, y también detuvo las
cláusulas que le autorizan a los agentes verificar el estatus migratorio
de alguien que no pueda proporcionar una identificación adecuada.

Además, el magistrado sobreseyó partes de la demanda a solicitud
del estado.

La mayoría de las cláusulas que forman la ley iban a entrar en vigor
el 1 de julio.

Grupos activistas por las libertades civiles habían interpuesto una
demanda en la que le pedían al juez que declarara inconstitucional la
legislación e impidiera que entrara en vigor.

eca

In case you have not emulated
Mayor Paul Bridges of Uvalde
and learned Spanish,
here’s google translate’s version in English:

A federal judge on Monday granted the request
to prevent parts of the Georgia law against illegal immigration to take
effect pending resolution of a lawsuit.

Judge Thomas Thrash blocked parts of the legislation that penalizes
people who transport or shelter illegal immigrants, and also stopped
the clauses that authorize agents to verify the immigration status of
someone who can not provide proper identification.

In addition, the judge dismissed portions of the demand at the request
of the state.

Most of the clauses that make up the law to go into effect on July 1.

Groups civil liberties activists had filed a lawsuit in which he asked
the judge to declare unconstitutional legislation and prevent the entry
into force.

eca

Pithy but factual.

We don’t need to feed the incarceration machine with a private prison
in Lowndes County Georgia that will profit private prison executives and investors at the expense of Georgia taxpayers and Georgia farmers.
Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Uvalde “mayor for everybody” works against HB 87

Sometimes somebody does the right thing not for fear or favor,
just because it’s the right thing.

Catherine E. Shoichet wrote for CNN 28 June 2011 about Paul Bridges,
mayor of Uvalde,

Republican mayor in the South becomes unlikely advocate for immigrants
:



Bridges is waging a deeply personal battle.

Enforcement of the Georgia law could put him in prison and tear apart
the families of some of his closest friends.

He thinks Governor Nathan Deal got it wrong when he signed HB 87:

Continue reading

GA farm worker story goes international

Ray Glier wrote for Agence France Press 23 June 2011,

US farms at risk as workers flee immigration law

ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) – A controversial immigration law in the US
state of Georgia has brought unintended results, forcing farmers to
reluctantly turn to ex-convicts as Latin American manual workers flee.

Low-skilled, undocumented workers, who for years have formed the backbone
of this southern state’s farming economy, have bolted in the lead-up
to the law taking effect on July 1, fearing deportation if caught
working here.

The measure’s mainly Republican supporters argue that the state needs
to enforce immigration laws in the absence of effective federal action,
saying schools, jails and hospitals are overburdened by illegal aliens.

But as the full cost of the immigration reform emerges in the form of
an estimated millions of dollars worth of crops rotting in fields, it
could alarm other states that have passed or are considering similar
strict measures.

The story quotes the figure of 11,000 needed workers,
and quotes some farmers about that the state’s scheme to
send people on probation to work on farms:

Continue reading

The Atlantic dissects Georgia’s anti-immigrant law

The VDT’s pan of HB 87 gets national notice.
Why we don’t need a law that puts south Georgia farmers out of business
while profiting private prison company CCA at taxpayer expense.

Megan McArdle wrote in the Atlantic 21 June 2011,

Georgia’s Harsh Immigration Law Costs Millions in Unharvested Crops
.
She started by quoting Jay Bookman,
who quoted the VDT.
She then goes into the economics:



The economics here aren’t particularly complicated, and I’m sure they
won’t be new to the sophisticated readers of the Atlantic, but they are
useful to look at and consider explicitly when thinking about issues
like this.

It goes like this. If you’re not going to let illegal immigrants do the
jobs they are currently being hired to do, then farmers will have to
raise wages to replace them. Since farmers are taking a risk in hiring
immigrant workers, you can bet they were getting a significant deal
on wage costs relative to “market wages”. I put market wages here in
quotations, because it’s quite possible that the wages required to get
workers to do the job are so high that it’s no longer profitable for
farmers to plant the crops in the first place.

Yes, that would be the problem.
A law that benefits private prison company CCA at the expense of
Georgia taxpayers while putting Georgia farmers out of business.

She concludes:

Continue reading

GA HB 87 ridiculed in Atlanta; VDT cited

Who could have forseen this?
Well, other than anyone who actually knows Georgia farmers.
And the VDT becomes thought leader to the world:

“Maybe this should have been prepared for, with farmers’ input. Maybe
the state should have discussed the ramifications with those directly
affected. Maybe the immigration issue is not as easy as &lquo;send them
home,&rquo; but is a far more complex one in that maybe Georgia needs them,
relies on them, and cannot successfully support the state’s No. 1
economic engine without them.”

Except of course HB 87 doesn’t just send them home:
it also locks up as many as it can catch, to the profit
of private prison company CCA, at the expense of we the taxpayers.

That’s as quoted by
Jay Bookman in the AJC 17 June 2011,

Ga’s farm-labor crisis playing out as planned
:



After enacting House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants
out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is,
well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.

It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Continue reading