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Request a DemoThis story is Part I of this week’s two-parter highlighting what Georgian’s have to say about inflation. Part II on inflation will run tomorrow. Subscribe to State Affairs at stateaffairs.com to read all of our election coverage.
Weekly grocery bills have doubled for Peachtree City empty-nester Steve Brown and his wife. Kendall Edwards, a 28-year-old farmer and tractor dealership employee, lives with his parents in Ocilla and has put plans to buy land and a home on hold. Marla Thompson is installing solar panels on her Riverdale home to hedge against rising electric bills.
Like most Americans, these Georgians have different experiences — and strategies — when it comes to dealing with soaring inflation, this week’s topic for State Affairs’ 10-member focus group, which includes people from different political, social and economic backgrounds throughout the state.
Over the next month, they’ll be weighing in on kitchen table issues and chronicling their journey toward the Nov. 8 midterm election.
“Inflation is probably the biggest issue on the ballot right now,” Brown, a Republican, told State Affairs.
And for good reason.
“For most people, it’s the worst inflation during their working lifetime,” said economist Jeff Humphreys, adding, “It’s definitely the worst inflation since the 1970s.”
U.S. Inflation has grown 8.3% in the last year, Humphreys said. The volatile growth is even more evident when you look at individual sectors. Energy prices — electricity and gas for cars, for instance — soared 25% during that same period, he said.
Sunbelt cities in the Southeast and the Southwest are experiencing the worst inflation in the country, according to consumer price index data released in September. Metro Atlanta was No. 2 on the list, behind Phoenix.
Americans are at their wits’ end dealing with higher gas pump prices due in part to the Russia-Ukraine war, near-empty store shelves as companies untangle supply chain snarls and as the government tamps down on rapid growth in the money supply. Inflation occurs when the money supply grows at a faster rate than the economy’s ability to produce goods and services.
“The good news is that inflation has peaked and will trend downward,” said Humphreys, director of economic forecasting at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. “The bad news is we’re kind of living at the peak right now.”
Inflation will likely settle down, averaging a 3% annual rate for the near future compared to 2% prior to the pandemic, Humphreys said.
Here’s what five Georgians from diverse backgrounds had to say about inflation. You’ll hear from the other half tomorrow.
Yana Batra, 18, Democrat and Georgia Tech freshman; first time voter
In what ways has inflation affected you recently?
I’m a college student. My housing and meal plans are fixed. So I’m not feeling the effects of inflation so much because the environment I’m in is much more insulated. But it’s something important to remember as we consider the effects of inflation more broadly. Obviously, the people who are feeling it the most are working families, lower-middle class families. Overwhelmingly Black and brown folks, in particular. So it’s something to not lose sight of.
Who or what is responsible for the inflation that we’re facing now?
That’s a really interesting question. I think a really common framing is [to blame] the current administration or Democrats, Republicans, whatever. More important things to consider are the recent global events, a massive pandemic that’s disrupting the supply chain, and a war in Ukraine with similar impacts. Another thing that’s important to remember is that corporations are still experiencing record profits. I think 2021 across the board, was an overwhelmingly positive year for many corporations that encompass a broad spectrum of products and services Americans buy. So when you have groups that are still profiting massively, and yet continuing to raise their prices, I think it’s very fair to say that a lot of corporations are responsible for the inflation and rising prices that we’re seeing.
How will inflation or cost of living issues affect your vote in November?
Here in Georgia, we are sitting on a budget surplus right now because of how fortunate we’ve been because of COVID relief money and the way we’ve balanced our budget over the past few years. When you look at the policies Democrats have proposed to do things like raise the minimum wage or actually increase teacher salaries instead of dropping small bonuses … I think when you look at policies that are more like long-term support as opposed to short-term windfalls, that’s definitely going to be shaping my vote.
Steve Brown, 58, Republican lives in Peachtree City with his wife; empty-nester
In what ways has inflation affected you and your family recently?
Everything’s costing more. It’s eating a lot out of our budget. For the two of us, we probably spend $400 a week on groceries whereas before we spent $200 and we ate out a lot. Now we’re not eating out as much. I can’t recall a time when grocery prices across the board have risen this high. I was alive during the Carter years [when inflation climbed to nearly 15%]. I just wasn’t buying a whole lot of groceries then.
Who or what is responsible for the inflation that we’re facing now?
The simple answer would be that the Biden administration is making mistakes and we’re paying for some of them. The more complicated answer is the Russian-Ukraine situation, which kind of exacerbated all of this. It doesn’t look good. I think that’s what really kind of started everything rolling. Once the gas prices started [stabilizing] … the Russian supply got cut off. There were supply chain issues as well. Supply chain issues are a peacetime thing. You work that out and you’ll eventually get that back. But when you get into a situation like Ukraine, it just starts rolling downhill and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. That’s kind of where we are right now and it doesn’t look as if there’s an end in sight.
How will inflation or cost of living issues affect your vote in November?
It’s going to affect a lot of people’s votes from what I’m hearing. If gas prices still hovered around $4 you would have seen an avalanche across the nation. Whoever’s in office during those types of scenarios always gets destroyed. Inflation is probably the biggest issue on the ballot right now. My kids are grown and out of the house. These young families have got to put food on the table every day and you’re watching that grocery bill just skyrocket. That’s gonna be a motivator.
Kendall Edwards, 28, farmer and precision agriculture consultant for a local tractor dealership; lives in Ocilla; single
In what ways has inflation affected you?
I’ve kind of placed homeownership and things of that nature on the back burner. So now where I’ve got a career and got things going my way and [I’m making] a decent amount of money, it’s just not reasonable. Right now you’re going to pay for anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s a house or car or a bag of chips at a convenience store. You’re paying more for that item. That is a tough cookie to swallow. That’s not something I’m willing to do now. Probably at the first of the year I’m just going to have to say, ‘Hey I can’t keep staying at my Mama and Daddy’s forever.’
I’ll look for the land and then I’ll provide the housing. My initial plan was to buy property — 30 acres or so with pecan trees or something or another, and build a barn as a starter while I’m still unmarried.
I have had very close friends who’ve looked into buying in the last year but who ended up buying twice over the budget they initially sat down and drew up. A $100,000 house in this area — I live in a rural area in a town that’s got two red lights — is bumping $170,000/$180,000. Thirty acres two-and-a-half to three years ago was roughly $1,800 an acre. [That’s now double]
Who or what is responsible for the inflation that we’re facing now?
The worst thing that happened is that we had a two-year pandemic. That opened the door to something we weren’t ready for. Nobody was prepared for something like that to come in here and cause as much havoc as it did with the population. The lack of jobs, being able to stay open based on employers or employees, things of that nature. I think that really was the sole motivator to inflation. Whether we handled it as a government properly … When we got stimulus packages, some people making $100,000 in this rural South Georgia town got $5,000/$6,000 worth of [stimulus] checks. They did not need that. I couldn’t understand why [the federal government] felt the need to qualify everybody [to get the checks].
How will inflation or cost of living issues affect your vote in November?
It’s going to be in the back of my head. I know who I’m going to vote for anyway. At this point, four weeks from the election, that isn’t going to change.
Keith McCants, 40, Democrat and factory worker married with three children; lives in Richmond Hill
In what ways has inflation affected you and your family recently?
Going to the grocery store. If you want to buy cube steak, for example. Six months to a year ago, it would cost me about 9 or 10 bucks. Now it’s up to around $20, $25 for a family pack [which has about six steaks]. I have a wife, a 13-year-old and a 2-year old. My oldest is at Albany State University.
It really depends on the store you go to. I go to Publix or Kroger but if you go to Food Lion down here or something like that, you get a better deal.
Who or what is responsible for the inflation that we’re facing now?
That’s a hard one. I know people like to blame the president but I don’t think he’s responsible for the inflation. I think it’s various factors. You’ve got the war in Ukraine. Then, you got the global markets. I’m no expert but what happens, say, in Britain, can have a ripple-effect across the world. Then, also you have COVID and the supply chain disruptions. Then you have all these goods sitting on these ships out in the ocean. And you go to a grocery store or go shop for clothes and the shelves are empty. So, the little bit you have there [in the stores] can cause the prices to go up. That’s just my opinion.
How will inflation or cost of living issues affect your vote in November?
Inflation’s not going to be an important factor for me. It’s really not going to be that big a factor in determining who I will vote for in November.
Marla Thompson, 65, married college professor who lives in Riverdale; Democrat but votes according to issue
In what ways has inflation affected you and your family recently?
It really hasn’t. Not yet.
Who or what is responsible for the inflation that we’re facing now?
It’s a combination of a lot of things. It might be the federal government for medication and Medicare in the state of Georgia. Kemp could have expanded Medicare but he hasn’t done that. So it really depends on what asset or facet you’re looking at. For example, the utility companies decide we need a [rate] increase and they just push it on to the consumer. With those utility companies, what I’m learning is that people are starting to get knowledgeable and becoming aware of what these utility companies are doing. So they’re starting to become more engaged in the process where before they really didn’t care. People are paying attention and going to meetings and asking the right questions. We [my husband and I] have decided to get rid of Georgia Power and we’re getting ready to put solar panels on our house. The Biden administration just signed this bill giving individuals who go electric or go solar 30% [tax write-off] versus the 24% that was being given before.
One of the things I have learned and I teach my students all the time is that they need to get comfortable with change because change is inevitable. They need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable because sometimes we have to make sacrifices for what we want today so that we can save something for our kids for tomorrow. That’s the way I kind of view it.
How will inflation or cost of living issues affect your vote in November?
It absolutely will. I won’t be voting for Kemp because he didn’t expand Medicare. My husband’s at the Medicare age and I’m getting to the Medicare age, too. If Kemp can’t expand it, why would I want to vote for somebody that only really looks out for the rich? The rich can afford to go and get [other insurance]. They can afford to send their daughters, wives, lovers, or side chicks out of town to get an abortion. Yet they don’t want to allow me to get one if my life’s in jeopardy.
Join the Conversation
Will inflation influence the way you vote at the polls on Nov. 8? Share your thoughts on social media:
Twitter @StateAffairsGA
Facebook @StateAffairsUS
LinkedIn @State Affairs
Contact Tammy Joyner at [email protected] or on Twitter @LVJOYNER
Catch-up on our E-Team:
State Affairs selects 10 Georgians for election team focus group
Georgia Votes: Inflation remains top of mind for Georgians (pt. 2)
ELECTION FOCUS GROUP: ON HEALTH CARE COSTS, MEDICAID EXPANSION AND ABORTION RIGHTS (PT.1)
ELECTION FOCUS GROUP: ON HEALTH CARE COSTS, MEDICAID EXPANSION AND ABORTION RIGHTS (PT. 2)
ELECTION FOCUS GROUP (PT. 1): DEMOCRACY FACES CHALLENGES, BUT OPTIMISM REMAINS STRONG
ELECTION FOCUS GROUP (PT. 2): DEMOCRACY FACES CHALLENGES, BUT OPTIMISM REMAINS STRONG
CONCERNS OVER CRIME CRITICAL IN MIDTERMS FOR ELECTION FOCUS GROUP (PT. 1)
CONCERNS OVER CRIME CRITICAL IN MIDTERMS (PT 2): ELECTION FOCUS GROUP
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Bill adds violation to Soil Amendment Act, but will it stop the stench?
After years of enduring intrusive, foul-smelling waste spread on untold tracts of rural land, Georgians living near such sites are finally getting some relief.
On Monday, Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a bill that adds a new violation to the state’s 48-year-old Soil Amendment Act. Soil amendment is meant to help farmers create healthier soil.
The law’s new provision is being hailed as a small but significant breakthrough in a 15-year battle to rein in abuses and mismanagement and create more safeguards and oversight in the disbursement of soil amendment. Many rural communities have long complained that the state-approved, sludge-like substance smells like “rotting corpses,” draws flies and vultures, and has led to other environmental problems.
Soil amendment is a state-approved additive derived from waste created mostly at chicken-processing and pet food-processing plants. It’s intended to be used as fertilizer on farmland where crops are grown. It’s supposed to help reduce erosion, improve water retention, change soil pH, pump up nutrients and provide other soil-boosting enhancements. Georgia law allows chicken processing waste to be applied to land as a soil amendment. Some farmers use it as a cheap alternative due to the rising cost of fertilizer.
The new provision, which goes into effect July 1, makes it illegal for a company to continue spreading soil amendment if the company or the site in which the waste is being distributed is under some kind of enforcement action from the state Environmental Protection Division or the state Department of Agriculture, the bill’s sponsor Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, told State Affairs Monday. Violators must be notified by the agriculture department and must resolve the prior problem before they can resume dispersing more soil amendment, he added.
“I’m very excited. I appreciate the governor signing the bill,” said Leverett who lives in Elbert County where some residents have had problems with soil amendment. “The passage of the bill indicates there’s some recognition by the Legislature that we do need to take a look at this. What I’m trying to do is address what I believe to be legitimate complaints. Hopefully, we started to do that this year and we’ll take other incremental steps as needed. I look forward to the Ag department enforcing this new violation once it’s gone through their regulatory process.”
David vs Goliath
In a state where agriculture wields tremendous power — it provides paychecks for 1 in 7 Georgians and contributes about $75 billion a year to the state’s economy, most of it from poultry processors — the new legislation is a milestone, local government officials and activists say.
“It is a very big step,” Tonya Bonitatibus, executive director and riverkeeper at the environmental nonprofit Savannah Riverkeeper, told State Affairs. “This bill made it through the Senate and the House Ag committees, which are traditionally definitely not in the business of overregulating Ag, and it passed almost unanimously [in the Legislature] and that speaks volumes.” Bonitatibus has been tracking the issue for 13 years.
While state lawmakers are recognizing the harsh impact the state’s poultry industry waste is having on some rural communities, leaders in those communities are waiting to see what the Georgia Department of Agriculture does. The department has sole power to regulate soil amendment.
“I hope the new [agriculture] commissioner Tyler Harper brings us more positive results,” said Oglethorpe County Commission Chair Jay Paul, a former state Environmental Protection Division specialist who dealt with soil amendment most of his 17 years with the agency. “I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Shortly after taking office in January 2023, Harper vowed to review the department’s Soil Amendment Program. Since then, he has issued recommendations and is beefing up the program, which when he arrived had only two people, one of whom was the inspector for the entire state. With $550,000 in funding from the state, Harper has added two more inspectors, a program manager and an attorney.
The department is updating its software so inspection reports can be completed digitally and tracked online rather than hand-written. It’s also updating its licensing and registration software to help registrants more easily comply with soil amendment program rules.
“Our team has done a really good job,” Harper told State Affairs. “We’ve really been working to get our arms around it since I walked in the door last year, and we’ve been committed to addressing the issue and ensuring that the agricultural industry can be successful and that we’re protecting our state, our resources and the public all at the same time.”
Rep. Robert Dickey, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee said Leverett’s bill is “about the [state agriculture] department having some teeth in the rules and law to really shut down” companies with abusive soil amendment practices.
The Ag department’s recent efforts are more than what’s been done in the past, critics say, but more needs to be done.
“I really haven’t seen a whole lot of difference. I mean, we’ve heard some good rhetoric,” Wilkes County Commission Chairman Sam Moore told State Affairs.
“Unfortunately, it’s the little bitty counties against the Department of Ag. And we lose every time,” Elbert County Commission Chairman Lee Vaughn said. “The Department of Ag has 100% control over what soil amendments are and what they allow and how they allow them to be applied.”
Local leaders in counties affected by the sludge onslaught say they’ve been kept in the dark for years about soil amendment. To make matters worse, they say they have no regulatory authority to resolve the problem because that’s left up to the state agriculture department.
“We want to know where it’s going. We want to know what it is,” Moore said. “I mean, we don’t even know if they [sludge-hauling companies] have a permit or not. You call the Department of Ag and they act like they don’t know. It’s just the same old thing that’s been going on for years.”
In the last year, some counties have started fighting back, creating local ordinances that discourage the sludge haulers from coming into their communities. At the same time, the problem has sparked activism among local residents in several counties where the problem prevails.
‘Death and Diarrhea’
State Affairs spoke to local government officials, activists, environmentalists, farmers and residents in a half dozen counties where soil amendment has been applied for years. Their stories all seem to align.
They talked about how their communities have been overrun with tractor-trailers hauling millions of gallons of sludge — or as locals call it “chicken blood and guts” — presumably from chicken and dog-food processing plants. The additive is being spread on open land in rural communities — usually small, sparsely-populated counties — across Georgia, with little state regulation, scrutiny or intervention.
The companies bringing in the waste have contracted with or paid farmers or landowners to apply it on their property. Some locals report seeing dozens of tanker-trucks a day hauling the waste into their communities. It’s an endless procession where the sludge is applied throughout the day, all hours of the night and even in the rain.
The usual hoot owls and honey bees have been replaced by vultures and flies, community members say. Millions of flies land on farm animals and get entangled in children’s hair when they play outdoors. In Hancock County, locals have resorted to firing shotguns in the air to scare away the vultures perched atop churches and other buildings. The vultures feast on the land where the soil amendment has been deposited.
“Buzzards or vultures, whatever you want to refer to them as, eat dead rotting flesh,” said Angela Walden who lives in Jefferson County, 45 minutes south of Augusta.
Dirt roads have become muddy, well-worn crevices as dozens of tanker trucks haul tons and of the liquid ooze into communities nonstop.
In most instances, the sludge is spread on top of the soil, locals and officials say, instead of injected into the ground, as the state requires, creating a horrific stench that stretches for miles.
“It smells like death and diarrhea,” said Patrick Dragos, a former Seattle ironworker who moved his wife and daughter to Jewell in August 2022. The family owns an historic wedding venue on a 42-acre estate with an 1895 Victorian home and barn near the Ogeechee River.
Dragos was so incensed after getting nowhere with state and local officials and the sludge-hauling companies that he is now running for chairman of Hancock County Board of Commissioners. The 34-year-old Republican is running against three Democrats, including the incumbent Helen “Sistie” Hudson who has held the seat since 2016.
“If they’re not going to handle our issues and take this seriously, I guess I’m going to have to do it myself,”Dragos said.
Problems began near the Dragos family’s Hancock County property in March 2023 when soil amendment was applied to a farm about a mile away. The smell and flies continued through October, leading Dragos to believe the problem was over. Then, the sludge-filled trucks returned in March of this year and have shown up frequently since then.
The family’s heading into a busy season of weddings, graduations and baby showers and never know when the trucks and smell will show up.
“The threat of the smell and flies is constant. So that stress is always there,” Dragos told State Affairs.
Dragos worries that nonstop application of the soil amendment may eventually seep into the water tables and eventually his well water.
It’s already created one environmental mishap.
In July 2022, some 1,700 fish died in the Little River in Wilkes County after soil amendment runoff from Mar-Leta Farms leached into the river, a Georgia Environmental Protection Division report found. The waste came from washdown water at a Hartwell County Nestle Purina facility provided by a company called Proponic Solutions, according to the EPD report. The report described the waste as “grey, turpid wastewater.” Mar-Leta, also known as McAvoy Farms, was later fined $85,000.
“It’s a major environmental concern,” said Paul, the Oglethorpe County Commission chairman. “And I’m not convinced that the fish kill in Wilkes County will be the last one because nobody really knows what’s in it. It’s just that simple. It comes as wastewater and suddenly goes on a truck and it becomes soil amendment.”
Fighting Back
Unable to get much help from the state agriculture department for years, some counties have taken steps to deal with the problem themselves:
In Warren County, companies wanting to apply soil amendment have to notify the county and get a permit to do so, Commission Chairman John Graham said. The companies also are limited to storing the sludge in certain industrial areas of the county and onsite for no more than 12 hours.
The ordinance was put in place about a year ago so that county officials “ would have more knowledge of what’s going on,” Graham said. “We’re going to stand on our ordinance. Our attorney put it together and he said he followed everything [based on the law]. He feels like we did the right thing.”
The issue had become such a problem that the county was forced to close one dirt road because “they had brought so many tanker-trucks of that stuff in, it messed up the dirt road. With all the rain we’ve had and them bringing in 20 trucks a day and that weight on a muddy dirt road just ruined it,” Graham said, adding that activity has “slowed down in the last little while,” Graham added.
Oglethorpe County created an ordinance last June that requires companies applying soil amendment on a tract of land to be at least 100 feet away from the property line of the nearest private property. During the 2021-22 legislative session, Senate Bill 260, sponsored by then-Sen. Tyler Harper, limited local buffers and setbacks to 100 feet.
“If we get a complaint, we will at least go out there and walk the perimeter of a property and make sure they’re not within 100 feet,” Paul said. “If we see something more egregious, like septage [human waste] for example, we can turn it over to the George Environmental Protection Division. It [Oglethorpe’s ordinance] does give us something new but that’s about it.”
Probably the strongest local government push back comes from Wilkes County. Two months ago, county leaders adopted an ordinance that requires landowners to prove they’re using the land where soil amendment is being applied to grow products, not just as a dumping ground. One soil amendment-application company sued the county two weeks ago saying the ordinance is illegal.
“Who knows what’s going to happen,” Moore, the Wilkes County Commission chairman, said when asked about the county’s chances of winning. “You would think we’d have a good chance. [But] We’ve been dealing with the state for so long, our expectations are not real high.”
Accidental Activists
The ongoing sludge fight has also created a motley mix of NIMBY activists.
Angela Walden and her husband had plans to build their dream home on their family’s nearly 200-year-old farm in Jefferson County. Those plans died on July 13, 2022 when they got the first whiff of a mysterious sludge that had been spread on her cousin’s farm across the two-lane highway dividing their properties.
A month later, Walden’s husband, who often tended the family farm after working his day job, got sick. He was vomiting. He had a sore throat, watery eyes and headaches. He was ultimately diagnosed with thyroiditis, a condition that occurs after coming in contact with hazardous toxins. That was the beginning of the Summer of Hell — 69 days of stomach-churning stench and flies — for Walden and her family.
It was also Walden’s swift induction into activism that would take her to the state Capitol to fight against the substance that ultimately caused a family rift that continues to this day.
“It’s small town, rural Georgians up against big industry,” said Walden, who has appeared in a Rural Georgia Protection Alliance documentary about soil amendment. “The chicken industry is big in our state. You’re going up against them, these lobbyists who have millions of dollars and big time attorneys. And you have the politicians. If I can just inform my county, my residents about what this really is and to try to keep it out of my community … that’s the best way to combat it.”
Walden wants to see regulatory authority over soil amendment removed from the state agriculture department and returned to the state’s Environmental Protection Division.
“That would be a huge win,” she said. “You know, we have to do what we can to try to bring some regulation and some oversight to what they’re doing.”
Have questions? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
House speaker Jon Burns hires new communications director
House speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, announced today that he has hired a new communications director. Kayla Roberson, who has served as press secretary at the Georgia Chamber for the past year or so, will now oversee all external communications, media relations and strategic messaging for Burns.
“I’m excited to welcome Kayla to our team,” Burns said in a statement. “Kayla has an excellent background, deep skill set and strong work ethic, and we’re excited to have her on board to continue getting our message out and sharing the House’s priorities ahead of and into the next session.”
A double major in political science and journalism at the University of Georgia, where she graduated in 2022, Roberson interned for U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican in north Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, and worked as a consultant for GOP political candidates before joining the Georgia Chamber.
“I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to work under the leadership of speaker Burns,” Roberson told State Affairs. “Whether it’s improving education opportunities, putting money back in the pockets of hardworking Georgians, creating jobs or supporting our rural communities, speaker Burns always prioritizes doing what is best, and what is right, for Georgia.”
Political strategist Stephen Lawson, who has held the top communications role for the speaker since last December, announced he’s joining Dentons, where starting today he’ll lead the global law firm’s public affairs efforts.
Have questions or comments? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on X @journalistajill or at [email protected].
Global bird flu disrupts Georgia exports, costing chicken producers millions
ATLANTA — A global bird flu that has rapidly spread from birds to dairy cows, milk supplies and humans has cost untold millions of dollars in lost export business in Georgia, the nation’s leading poultry producer, officials with the state Department of Agriculture and poultry industry said.
Georgia has had only three reported cases of H5N1 avian influenza since it reemerged in 2022. The last of those cases was resolved in November 2023 but ramifications of those outbreaks continue to have a big effect on the state’s ability to export chicken and chicken parts, such as chicken feet, to different countries, including China, one of Georgia’s biggest export markets for chicken feet.
In 2022, frozen chicken feet, for example, accounted for more than 85% of all U.S. poultry exported to China, according to Farm Progress, publisher of 22 farming and ranching magazines.
The $30 billion poultry industry is Georgia’s largest segment in its No. 1 industry — agriculture.
China has also placed a ban on the import of chicken products from 41 other American states. The ban on Georgia products went into effect Nov. 21, 2023. Efforts to reach the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. were unsuccessful.
Georgia Poultry Federation President Mike Giles estimates the state’s loss at “well into the millions of dollars.”
“It’s a significant amount in a significant export market for us,” he said. “Poultry paws [feet] immediately lose value because of the loss of demand.”
The ban has forced Georgia poultry producers to find alternative markets for their products that would normally be headed to China.
“Some are sold domestically, some are frozen and stored, hopefully to find markets later on, and some go to other countries,” Giles said.
This isn’t the first time China has banned U.S.-produced poultry products due to a bird flu outbreak. The country instituted a ban in January 2015 which lasted until November 2019 — even though U.S. poultry products were deemed free of the disease by August 2017.
After that ban was lifted, China’s appetite for American-produced chicken products became voracious.
In 2022, U.S. producers shipped nearly $6 billion in poultry meat and related products (excluding eggs) to over 130 countries. China has emerged as the second largest destination for U.S. poultry exports, increasing from $10 million in 2019 to a record $1.1 billion in 2022, according to Southern Ag Today.
Chicken paws, for instance, are eaten in many Asian countries, including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Korea.They can also be found on Chinese dim sum menus throughout the U.S. and are also popular in Jamaica, Trinidad, Russia and Ukraine in everything from soups and curries to fried snacks.
Three Georgia counties have reported H5N1 outbreaks since 2022. The most recent case was late last year. Henry, Sumter and Toombs counties each reported one case of H5N1 bird flu. Those outbreaks are resolved, poultry and state agriculture officials say.
“When HPAI cases are found in any state, that state is given a designation that could lead to foreign countries halting trade on poultry products from that state,” Georgia Department of Agriculture spokesman Matthew Agvent told State Affairs.
Not since 2016 has the United States experienced such a fast-moving case of the H5N1 avian influenza. In the last two months, the virus has spread in parts of the United States from birds to dairy cows, some milk supplies and humans. Two people — a Texas dairy worker and a prison inmate in Colorado who was killing infected birds at a poultry farm — are reported to have caught the virus, according to news reports. The outbreak is the largest in recent history, impacting both domestic poultry and livestock as well as wild birds and some mammal species.
State officials are continuing to monitor the national outbreak and its impact on Georgia.
Georgia’s poultry & egg industry: At A Glance
Annual economic impact: $30.2 billion
Percentage of the Agriculture industry: 58% *
Jobs: 87,900
Counties involved in poultry & egg production: 3 out of 4
National ranking in chicken broiler production: No. 1
Daily production of table eggs: 7.8 million
Daily production of hatching eggs: 6.5 million
Pounds of chicken produced daily: 30.2 million
Pounds of chicken produced annually: 8 billion
Number of chicken broilers processed each day: 5 million
Counties involved in poultry & egg production: 3 out of 4
Source: Georgia Poultry Federation; The Center for Agribusiness & Economic Development, University of Georgia, Ag Snapshots 2024; Georgia Poultry Federation.
Have questions? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
Is it safe to eat chicken and eggs and drink milk? Answers to your most pressing questions about the latest bird flu outbreak
A two-year-old strain of bird flu has heightened concerns in Georgia and the rest of the country after the virus recently spread to dairy cows. Here’s what you need to know about the virus and its impact on Georgia and the rest of the country. What are the symptoms of this flu in humans? Eye …