HB65: HB65 State symbols; designate collard greens as official state greens; potlikka as official state dipping sauce of the official state bread

Georgia currently has an official state bread (cornbread) but no official state greens or dipping sauce. This bill would add a new section to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated designating collard greens as the official state greens and 'potlikka' (the seasoned liquid left over from cooking collard greens) as the official state dipping sauce for cornbread. The bill includes legislative findings describing Georgia's food traditions and noting the state is the second-largest producer of collards in the country, with almost 30,000 acres devoted to the crop. The designation would only take effect on July 1, 2025 if a separate bill making cornbread the official state bread also becomes law by that date. If that other bill does not pass, this bill would automatically repeal itself on July 1, 2025.

• Adds a new Code section (O.C.G.A. § 50-3-94) designating collard greens as the official Georgia state greens.
• Designates 'potlikka,' the cooking liquid from collard greens, as the official state dipping sauce for the official state bread.
• Includes findings stating Georgia is the second highest producer of collards nationally, farming almost 30,000 acres of the crop.
• Makes the designation effective July 1, 2025 only if a separate bill naming cornbread the official state bread also takes effect by that date.
• Automatically repeals itself on July 1, 2025 if that companion cornbread bill does not become law.

The designation is largely symbolic and would not impose duties on individuals or businesses. It touches Georgia's collard farmers, whose crop would gain official recognition, and ties into the fate of a separate bill designating cornbread as the state bread.

The change is symbolic rather than regulatory: no new taxes, penalties, or requirements result from it. Its main practical effect would be official recognition of collard greens and potlikka as part of Georgia's culinary identity, contingent on the cornbread bill also passing.

• Section 1 lists legislative findings about Georgia's food traditions and collard farming, including that collards cover almost 20 percent of the state's farmed acreage.
• Section 2 adds O.C.G.A. § 50-3-94, formally designating collard greens as the state greens and potlikka as the state dipping sauce for the state bread.
• Section 3 makes the Act's effective date, July 1, 2025, contingent on a separate cornbread state-bread bill becoming law by the same date, with automatic repeal if it does not.
• Section 4 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-02-25House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
2. 2025-01-17House Second Readers (House)
3. 2025-01-16House First Readers (House)
4. 2025-01-15House Hopper (House)

• Angela Moore (D, HD-091)Primary sponsor
• Kasey Carpenter (R, HD-004)
• Emory Dunahoo (R, HD-031)
• Karla Drenner (D, HD-085)
• Clint Crowe (R, HD-118)
• Patty Stinson (D, HD-150)

• state symbols
• collard greens
• Georgia agriculture
• cornbread