Chinese Land Buys, Avian Influenza, and Georgia Farm Bureau

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

We’re doing a whirlwind of headlines today starting with Florida’s incoming agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson. Simpson has now released a plan that would put heavy restrictions on the way foreign entities can buy agricultural land in Florida. According to Simpson, China spent more than $6 billion on U.S. real estate in 2022. Twenty-four percent of that was in the Sunshine State.

Meanwhile, avian influenza is back in the headlines, this time in Alabama. It’s now been found in a noncommercial flock in Lawrence County leaving officials concerned about the risk to commercial flocks. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries said it was the first since 2017 involving a non-commercial backyard flock in Alabama.

And, on a happier note, happy birthday - or anniversary? - to the Georgia Farm Bureau! Some 1,416 Georgia farmers and agribusiness leaders from across the state met on Jekyll Island at the start of the month for the 85th Annual Georgia Farm Bureau Convention. The convention’s “85 Years & Growing” theme highlighted how GFB has given Georgia farmers a united voice in the legislative halls of Atlanta and Washington, D.C., since it was founded in 1937.