Goats, Backpacks and Acquisitions

Haylie Shipp

From the office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this week, it’s been announced that the Florida Cabinet had approved 10 land and conservation easement acquisitions. The properties, totaling more than 17,000 acres, will be managed and monitored by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The majority of the acres are within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 South Georgia third- through fifth-grade students were challenged to put their science, technology, engineering, and math skills to work when the Georgia Ag Experience recently visited their schools. An interactive mobile classroom managed by the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture, it spent 10 days taking students on a deep dive into the state’s largest economic sector. A central goal of the Experience is to reach elementary school students and teachers who lack knowledge of agriculture.

And, in Alabama, a release from Alabama Extension touts that meat goats could be the state’s next booming industry. Valens Niyigena, Extension Specialist states that the meat goat inventory for Alabama in 2021 saw a 2 percent increase from the year before. He added that the U.S. spent $133.82 million in December of 2021 on frozen, fresh, and chilled sheep and goat meat. This was a 44 percent increase from the year previous.