{"id":323,"date":"2012-11-18T11:05:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-18T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/agriculture-considered-beneficial-vdt.html"},"modified":"2012-11-18T11:05:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-18T16:05:00","slug":"agriculture-considered-beneficial-vdt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/agriculture-considered-beneficial-vdt.html","title":{"rendered":"Agriculture considered beneficial —VDT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe VDT’s first recent agriculture story
\nstarted to connect the dots to
\n
\nbuilding on local strengths<\/a>
\nto growing local knowledge-based jobs in
\n
\nWiregrass Alley.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n“Staff Writer” wrote for the VDT 14 November 2012,
\n
\nValdosta-Lowndes: An agricultural heartland<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nWhen the Valdosta Daily Times and its sister newspapers in Tifton,
\n
\n<\/a>
\nThomasville, Cordele, Americus and Moultrie decided to launch an
\nagriculture magazine in January 2011 to be distributed across South
\nGeorgia, it was unknown how it would be received.\n<\/p>\n

\nWell, the first couple of issues were quarterly, and then due to
\noverwhelming response and requests, it is now a bi-monthly
\npublication going into its third year.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhile Valdosta may not consider itself an agriculture community, we
\nsometimes forget just how much acreage and economic benefit derives
\nfrom the ag and forestry industries locally. With a farmgate value
\nof $70 million and more than two thirds of our entire county taxable
\ndigest in agriculture and forestry use, Lowndes County remains
\ndependent on this economic sector almost as much as the surrounding
\ncounties, which we consider far more rural than ours.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s great, and I congratulate the VDT.
\nTheir conclusion is also good as far as it goes,
\nbut it could go further:\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Times has stated it before and it bears repeating \u2014
\nagriculture and forestry are the industries which built the local
\neconomy and are its mainstays when other industries are down. Why
\nnot build on this segment and attract business and industry to the
\ncounty and to the region which are complementary to this essential
\neconomic component?\n<\/p>\n

\nSouth Georgia will not be the next Silicon Valley, but it already is
\nthe fruit, vegetable and timber basket for the Southeast. Let’s not
\noverlook this key area as we look to diversify our industries for
\nthe future.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIndeed, let’s not try to be the next Silicon Valley, and lets stop
\nusing the straw man of pretending that any mention of Silicon Valley means
\nwe want to be<\/em> Silicon Valley.
\nThe point of Silicon Valley is that there are aspects<\/em> we can profitably
\nexamine, and of
\n
\nSolar Valley in Saginaw, Michigan,<\/a> and of various
\nother places that have successfully attracted or developed industries.
\nThe biggest point is that
\n
\n<\/a>
\n
\nSilicon Valley got to be Silicon Valley by building on strengths already here.<\/a>
\nWe don’t have Stanford, but we do have VSU (with its
\nHarley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration<\/a>)
\nand Wiregrass Tech and GMC; we even have
\nan Industrial Authority, which has
\nagriculture in its charter<\/a> and, if I’m not mistaken,
\nis now emphasizing growing local businesses..
\nWe don’t have Intel, but we do have all the various agricultural firms
\nthe VDT mentioned.
\nAnd we have South Georgia Medical Center and a cluster of medical firms,
\nplus Moody Air Force Base.
\nWhat can we build out of all that, and other local strengths?\n<\/p>\n

\nSee
\n
\nthe next post<\/a>
\nfor one possibility.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The VDT’s first recent agriculture story started to connect the dots to building on local strengths to growing local knowledge-based jobs in Wiregrass Alley. “Staff Writer” wrote for the VDT 14 November 2012, Valdosta-Lowndes: An agricultural heartland, When the Valdosta Daily Times and its sister newspapers in Tifton, Thomasville, Cordele, Americus and Moultrie decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,202,14,16,70,266,321,740,8,2,41,19,570,571,21,22,289,457,133,178,332],"tags":[8736,8750,8704,8706,8728,8756,8761,8801,8701,8699,8791,8718,8709,8702,12,7,8783,8784,8711,8712,8758,6,8769,8742,8749,8765],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-economy","category-environment","category-ethics","category-festivals","category-food-and-drink","category-forestry","category-georgia","category-government","category-health-care","category-history","category-military","category-moody-afb","category-planning","category-politics","category-science","category-valdosta-farm-days","category-vdt","category-vlcia","category-vlcoc","tag-activism","tag-agriculture","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-ethics","tag-festivals","tag-food-and-drink","tag-forestry","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-hahira","tag-health-care","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-military","tag-moody-afb","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-farm-days","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-vlcoc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}