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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2020 FARMERS AND CONSUMERS MARKET BULLETIN – 404-656-3722 – agr.georgia.gov PAGE 15
Community farmers markets make changes to conduct safe commerce during COVID-19 epidemic

By Jay Jones Backyard Farm had sold their produce at
jay.jones@agr.georgia.gov the Dallas Farmers Market but are now do-
ing so on their website, get an error trying
Local farmers markets across Georgia to access, probably because of hyphen using
face a tough decision whether to open this Google Forms. People can visit the website,
spring as the state remains under a shel- select what they want from the produce the
ter-in-place order to slow the spread of the Bridges’ have for sale, and then pick it up on
COVID-19 virus. While several markets Saturdays.
have closed, others have moved operations The Dallas Farmers Market is using the
online or instituted social distancing rules online Local Harvest service to promote
for vendors and patrons. its vendors. The Bridges have also tried to
Relinda Williams, manager of the States- find new markets on their own. A bakery in
boro Farmers Market, said they already had Marietta invited them to come out and sell to
an online purchase option in place. That al- their customers. The Bridges also contacted
lowed them to close the Saturday morning their local chamber of commerce to get on a
market and go 100 percent online. list of open businesses.
“We thought that we would be best off not “We started growing hydroponic lettuce
opening the Saturday market, which for us is this year, and we’ve actually had a couple
a very social thing,” Williams said. “There of orders from restaurants in Cedartown,”
are crowds and it’s definitely very social with Katie Bridges said. “A lot of them are trying
people sitting down at the tables to eat some to buy local because some are having trou-
of the prepared foods and things like that. Public health guidelines enacted to curb the spread of coronavirus are putting farmers markets – like ble getting their orders filled from their big
We thought we would be better off turning this one held in Griffin a few years ago – in a pickle. Some markets have addressed the problem by going commercial suppliers.”
virtual. (UGA CAES file photo)
our attention to the online part of our busi- Bridges said she remains optimistic as
ness. In fact, we’ve turned it into a drive-thru by the second week, it was more than double trons to keep the recommended six feet of she wonders what life will be like after the
operation.” that at $10,500,” she said. “We just closed distance away from one another even when threat of COVID-19 subsides. She believes
The Statesboro market uses an online tool the orders for this week’s pickup (April 9), they are in line to purchase from a vendor. the current experience may cause people to
called Market 2 Go (www.locallygrown.net), and it’s at $16,700.” “The customers have caught on quickly seek out more locally grown foods.
which provides virtual space for vendors to Other markets have decided to open but and understand the necessity for it,” he said. “I’m hoping that some of us smaller farm-
sell their produce and value-added products. with reduced hours and social distancing “It has not impacted attendance. We would ers can pick up the slack and still be able
The online market is open Friday through rules to keep vendors and patrons safe. Greg normally be a four-hour market this time to provide produce, but I think you’ll see a
Tuesday. Customers make their choices on Dennis, manager of the Cotton Mill Market of year, but we are staying with our winter change. And I think the smaller farmers will
the website and the system distributes the in Carrollton, said the market had always hours at two hours and trying to encourage survive,” Katie Bridges said. “It’ll be rough,
orders to the farmers and producers. They been well attended with people enjoying the people to get in, get their stuff and get out.” but I think the tenacity that comes with be-
bring their items to the market’s pick-up spring weather. Now, it’s different. Dennis said the first week saw the same ing a farmer will get us through this.”
location on Wednesday, where market staff “Normally we would have a hospitality panic-buying as grocery stores, but demand Locally Grown is a network of hundreds
and volunteers sort the orders to be ready for tent set up with tables and chairs and coffee has calmed since. of farmers markets across Georgia. Go to
pick-up on Thursday. where people can lounge and visit. Now we “It was the same number of customers www.locallygrown.net to find a farmers
Williams said the online service had don’t set that up because we’re trying to dis- in week two and by week three, it was less market near you.
been informal before COVID-19. Now that courage people from staying,” he said. “That intense but basically the same number of Local Harvest provides online space for
the market is entirely online, business has may be strange for a farmers market, but customers,” he said. “They seemed to realize farmers markets, farmers and producers to
boomed. we’re trying to discourage hospitality.” that they don’t have to be there between 9 sell their products directly to customers. Go
“That was a crazy big jump even when Cotton Mill vendors set up 10 feet apart, and 9:15 a.m. to get what they want.” to www.localharvest.org for more informa-
we went to the first week, like $4,000, and and market organizers are instructing pa- Katie and Dave Bridges of Chewy’s tion.
The University of Georgia Extension Service released guidance for farmers markets operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
See that guidance online at https://extension.uga.edu/topic-areas/timely-topics/emergencies.html and on the facing page.

oPen For Business dairy Farmers

Continued From Page 1 Continued From Page 1
spection – are operating similarly. However, like the seed lab staff, most members of the “Both plants, customers of their milk are almost exclusively food service,” Johnson said.
Animal Industry staff have no choice but to report to their usual workspaces. That demand fell off a cliff when schools statewide were closed, and restaurants were ordered
“We have staff in the field that are having to cover inspected meat establishments. to cease dine-in service to help stop the spread of novel coronavirus. Then Georgians were ordered
That’s something that we haven’t stopped doing. We basically have about 82 of Animal to shelter at home, and consumer demand for milk went through the roof. It was the same pan-
Industry’s 150 staff that are out in the field just about every day – doing meat inspections, ic-buying that emptied meat cases, produce bins and paper goods aisles in the early weeks of the
livestock market inspections, doing market news, disease investigations,” Buuck said. outbreak.
“We have directed them to maintain social distancing, we’ve provided them with (per- “Retail milk sales increased 55 percent,” said Farrah Newberry, director of the Georgia Milk
sonal protective equipment) like gloves and masks and hand sanitizer. We’re just asking Producers in Watkinsville, an organization funded by Georgia dairies for educational and promo-
them to be as safe as possible while they’re conducting their mandatory duties. But this tional purposes.
stuff has to continue in order for the production chain to continue.” Despite the spike in demand, producers in the largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of
State Chemist and Tifton Lab Director John Shugart, whose facility provides the sci- America, were asked to dump milk a couple weeks into the COVID-19 crisis.
ence behind the investigations of several divisions – including Ag Inputs and Fuel and “It was really hard for us to understand. When there’s no milk on the shelves, why do we have
Measures – is supplementing those efforts by developing hand sanitizer for field staff who to dump?” Newberry said.
could be at risk due to shortages of commercial hand sanitizer. About 50 Georgia dairies produce milk for the co-op, which sells it to processors who pas-
As word leaked of his efforts, Shugart entertained a great deal of internal interest in teurize it, package it and sell it for wholesale and retail distribution. About a dozen of the largest
that project but stressed that handwashing with soap and water is still the best prevention. dairies in the co-op were instructed to dump milk the last week of March and first week of April.
He then deflected attention to Seed Lab manager Dedria “DeeDee” Smith and her staff. Georgia lost about 70 tanker loads, or 3.4 million pounds (395,348 gallons) of milk, Newberry
Unable to ride out the COVID-19 storm at home, Smith’s group shows up daily – some- said.
times working 12-hour days – to conduct germination tests on peanut seeds. Samples Johnson dumped about 22,000 gallons in early April but stressed that he has not been asked to
come to the Tifton lab from Georgia as well as Alabama, Florida and Texas, and growers dump again since.
await those results before planting in late spring when the soil temperature consistently Calvin Moody, owner of Brooksco Dairy in Quitman, dumped 27 loads of milk over a sev-
measures 70 degrees or higher. en-day period that ended April 8. The loss wasn’t his alone.
Testing was critical this year, according to Don Koehler, director of the Georgia Peanut “When dairy farmers dump milk there is zero dollars of income generated by dumped milk but
Commission in Tifton. Quality issues with some varieties have doubled testing require- what happens is that the losses are shared collectively by the producers. For example, if I dump five
ments on some samples at the lab. loads and my neighbor doesn’t dump any, it impacts us the same,” Moody said.
Despite budget restrictions forced on state agencies last fall that prevented Smith from “Because we’re part of the co-op, all of our sales we generate are pooled together and divided
hiring her usual complement of temporary workers to help with the rush of peanut season, amongst us based on the amount of milk we produce. We count the pounds we produce even to
the seed lab processed 1,113 more peanut samples in March 2020 than in March 2019, in share losses with other producers. We’re not paid for our losses.”
addition to about 1,000 samples of various other crops. Newberry said the Georgia Milk Producers and the Dairy Alliance in Atlanta, a nonprofit dairy
The germination tests the lab performs inform the planting decisions of farmers in the advocate funded by dairy producers in eight Southeastern states, are asking the public to notify
Southeast. None of those tests can be performed from a lab worker’s home, and growers them when they see signs at the grocery limiting milk purchases.
would be flying blind without the data the lab provides, Koehler said. “We’re trying to contact those stores individually. What we’re seeing is it really is a store deci-
“None of (the lab employees) have been working from home. None of them have been sion putting up those signs. It’s not coming from corporate. We’re asking them to take those signs
sheltering at home. They’ve been in that lab, made early adjustments for the six-foot rule, down and let people buy as much milk as they want,” she said.
and the job they did is phenomenal, and I hope the people on that staff know how much Contact the Georgia Milk Producers at gamilkproducers@gmail.com or 706.310.0020, or The
they’re appreciated by the farmers.” Dairy Alliance at 800.343.4693.