VALDOSTA, Ga. — A large number of restaurants across the country have started incorporating locally raised and produced ingredients, offering patrons a taste of the area while supporting the surrounding communities.

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary W. Black sees the school cafeteria as “the largest restaurant in Georgia,” and has a similar vision for the Peach State. 

The state Department of Agriculture has a goal of seeing at least 20 percent of school menu nutrition comes from products grown in Georgia by the year 2020.

Black calls it the DOA’s “20/20 Vision” and hopes the initiative will create ripple effects in Georgia’s agriculture industry. The 20/20 Vision is part of the DOA’s Georgia Grown program.

“Georgia Grown is built around our Georgia Grown brand. Any business involved in the forestry and agriculture business is eligible to be involved in the program,” Black said.

He said he hopes students will see and recognize the Georgia Grown label on foods in grocery stores and encourage their parents to buy Georgia Grown products.

“It’s still our number one industry,” Black said. “The total economic budget is right about $75 billion. At the farm level, that’s right about $15 billion. We have a statewide impact.”

According to Black, Lowndes and Echols counties make significant contributions to state agriculture. The 2017 Lowndes farm-gate — everything behind the gate of the farm — is valued at $82 million and the Echols farm-gate is valued at $195 million.

“You’ve got 6,500 jobs just in Lowndes County that are somehow related to farming and forestry,” Black said. “It all starts at the farm and there are a lot of multipliers along the way.”

States like Montana and West Virginia have focused on similar “farm to school” programs in recent years that provide students with locally grown and produced food options that, in part, benefit local communities and businesses. Initiatives geared toward local foods in school cafeterias nationwide have been supported by the USDA for at least four years.

Black said agriculture creates not only many jobs on the farms but many jobs beyond the farms as well: accountants, lawyers, food processing, etc. Farm-related jobs combined with work on the farms themselves, the Echols County number jumps to $267 million, and Lowndes jumps to $1.8 billion, he said.

Black pointed to the work of a few area farms and manufacturers.

“The Langdale Company procures the pine logs. You have quite a large amount of people procuring, operating at the saw mill, trucking,” he said. “Sunset Farms, they don’t kill any hogs there, they make sausage, they make bacon. Even though those hogs aren’t from Georgia, those are Georgia jobs.”

Black said Georgia Grown allows stores to include farmers in store promotions.

“Farmers like Ken Corbett are featured in promotions for grocery store products. Our major grocery stores like Walmart, Kroger, Harvey’s, Publix, IGA, many of these grocery store chains, you can see Georgia Grown labels, and Georgia consumers will buy it.”

Black spoke highly of how local agriculture and agriculture statewide contribute to the nation as a whole.

“When it all goes together, it’s one of the great treasures of America,” he said.

DeMersseman writes for the Valdosta, Georgia Daily Times.