Georgia Organics is a member-supported nonprofit organization founded in 1997 with a mission to connect organic food from Georgia farms to Georgia families. Georgia Organics implements the following four main programs: Farmer Services: Presently, organic farms represent less than one percent of agricultural land in Georgia—and yet, demand for organic food is the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture. Organic farmers face a number of technical and business challenges to obtaining Certified Organic status, establishing thriving operations, and marketing their products. Farmer Services provides solutions to these challenges. First, Georgia Organics provides training and mentoring to beginning farmers, not only at our annual conference but also throughout the entire year. Georgia Organics co-facilitates the Journeyman Farmer Certificate Program, a collaboration led by the University of Georgia, which helps beginning farmers and ranchers refine skills they need to become successful. Second, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Agriculture, we also lead the movement in Georgia to double the number of Certified Organic farmers by 2020 with the 200 Organic Farms campaign. Additionally, Georgia Organics promotes farmers markets by recruiting first-time shoppers, offering them incentives and swag, and placing market ambassadors to conduct outreach and create a welcoming environment. Georgia Food Oasis: Georgia Organics is working to eliminate food deserts in cities and towns across the state. Our Georgia Food Oasis program convenes community stakeholders to develop innovative and affordable ways to discover, taste, and learn about healthy, fresh, and local food. By working together and with facilitation and microgrant funding from Georgia Organics, neighbors and community leaders develop their own strategies to improve food access and health outcomes. Through an Eat – Cook – Grow strategy, Georgia Food Oasis communities collectively cook up their own food future. Farm to School:Georgia Organics is developing a generation of adventurous and conscious eaters by working with school district leaders, school nutrition staff, educators, farmers and community members to engage kids across Georgia in farm to school activities, such as tending school gardens, serving locally sourced school meals, conducting taste-tests, and incorporating gardening and nutrition lessons into standards-based curriculum. We founded the state’s first farm to school program in 2007, initiated the Georgia Farm to School Alliance and is Georgia’s lead for the National Farm to School Network. We provide hands-on training for educators and school nutrition staff and coordinate Georgia’s October Farm to School Month campaign. Georgia Organics partners with University of Georgia Extension and Georgia’s Departments of Agriculture, Public Health, and Education to coordinate the annual Golden Radish Awards, honoring school districts for their farm to school successes and encouraging the expansion of farm to school into new districts. Georgia Organics is the State Partner for FoodCorps, a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy. FoodCorps places emerging leaders into limited-resource schools for a year of service. Annual Conference: More than a conference, this two-day experience is one of the South’s most powerful forums convening sustainable and organic farmers alongside foodies, environmentalists, chefs, educators, home gardeners, and community organizers. Through educational sessions on topics from weed management to beekeeping to canning and herbal medicine, in-depth workshops, farm tours, peer networking, farm business training, and one-on-one consulting, participants are inspired and reenergized while garnering new skills and ideas to increase organic food production in Georgia. Among the diverse attendees are many beginning farmers– the next generation of Southern farmers and the underpinning of this movement. The culminating event is the Saturday night Farmer’s Feast, a celebration of the year’s toil and fruits of the harvest. Join us!

Good Food Org Guide

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Georgia Organics

Georgia Organics

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