Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, February 23, 2026 Video: https://vimeo.com/1167421872 (a timestamp t plays at https://vimeo.com/1167421872#t=s) Page: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-02-23/senate-agriculture-and-consumer-affairs This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays. [0:06:42] Meeting. Um, at this time, I wanna call on, uh, Chairman Lee Anderson to, uh, start us off with a word of prayer please. [0:06:51] Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, once again, thank you so much for a beautiful day. Dear Lord, thank you for allowing us to get up this morning and take care of ourself. Thank you for the little blessings. We call 'em little blessings, but they all great blessings and big blessings. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for life. Thank you for loving us, dear Heavenly Father. Dear Lord, give us the wisdom and knowledge to make the right decision for the great people of the great state of Georgia. [0:07:22] We just wanna thank you for your love and your mercy and your grace. Dear Heavenly Father, forgive us of our sins, and thank you for our wonderful blessings. In your namesake. Amen. [0:07:35] Amen. [0:07:36] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All righty. Um, the, we got one bill on the agenda today, and, um, it's, uh, Senate Resolution 800. Um, I'm the sponsor of this bill, but, uh, the, the bill creates a, a joint study committee on the generational sustainability of family farms. And we talk a lot about, uh, what is happening in our agricultural sector right now. Um, and I think that everybody here, uh, understands the need of why a study committee like this, uh, is needed. [0:08:09] And, um, hopefully we can, uh, find out ways, uh, that, that we can help our family farms and, and, and, and help, uh, ensure that that, uh, legas- legacy of production agriculture, uh, can be passed down to the next generation and can be an economically viable operation. Um, the, the bill is in front of you there. It's, uh, as you see, it states it's a joint House and Senate study committee. Um, it's going to have, uh, two co-chairs, along with the Commissioner of Agriculture, Tyler Harper, and the, uh, lieutenant governor will have five picks, and the, uh, uh, speaker will have five picks. [0:08:46] And, uh, we have a, a maximum of five meetings that we're gonna have across, uh, across the state. And, uh, um, Chairman Anderson, you're recognized. [0:08:59] At the right and the proper time, I'd like to make a motion for our family farms. [0:09:04] Oh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is greatly appreciated. Um, do we have a second? [0:09:09] Second. [0:09:10] All right, we have a second from, uh, Senator Hatchett. You got that, Miss Sarah? [0:09:15] Mm-hmm. [0:09:16] All right. Is there any further discussion? All right. I'm sorry. Um, Chairman Watson. [0:09:23] Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a, a side note for this committee. Uh, I recently read an article by the Georgia Farm Bureau that, uh, stated that Georgia was number two in chapter 12, uh, bankruptcies, uh, with a total of 27, I believe it was, uh, for 2025, and that's up 145% from 2024. So I would say this piece of legislation is desperately needed. Just put that- [0:09:49] 100% [0:09:50] ... out there. [0:09:50] I, um, Chairman, I don't know that I've read that article. Do you mind, do you remember who the number one state was? [0:09:57] Arkansas was number one with 33, so we're not very far behind. [0:10:02] Mm-hmm. All right. [0:10:02] Chapter 12. [0:10:04] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, we, uh, it's a tough time out there, and we, we know it all too well. There are several of us on this committee that, that farm. And, uh, Senator Howard, you're recognized. [0:10:17] Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Um, I know, uh, site visits are important, uh, part of education, especially when it comes to family farming. I know it may be outside the bounds of a study committee, but is there a way to, uh, informally have that as part of the, the committee? [0:10:34] Absolutely. I think that we would be, uh, we would love to do that. Um, we can, uh, we can set up any kind of visits that, that anyone on the study committee would like to, uh, um, would like to be able to undertake. And I'll say our friends with Farm Bureau and Agribusiness Council and the Poultry Federation are all supportive of this study committee. And, uh, we, um, may be glad to make, make that work. I think it'd be a good thing. Go ahead, Mr.- [0:11:02] I had a question. I'm sorry. [0:11:05] I took too long. [0:11:05] Uh, there you go. [0:11:06] That, that was on me. I- if I may, Mr. Chair, with those, uh, informal get-togethers, they would not qualify, as I said, no more than five meetings. So I wanna make sure that anything that happens outside of that wouldn't, uh, be in the way. [0:11:19] That's right. That's right. [0:11:20] Okay. [0:11:20] You know, it would not be a, a formal st- study committee meeting, uh, with Senate press and Senate media and all that kind of stuff, but, uh, unless they wanted to come. [0:11:30] All right. [0:11:30] But, you know, it would be, not be one of the five meetings. Uh, uh, let's see here. Um, Senator Kemp. No, I'm sorry. Senator Anderson, d- were you- [0:11:40] We, you know, on that same line, Senator Howard, we, we do go all over the state and meet in different places, so I mean, it would be wonderful if we could have one of the, one or two of the study committees at a farm. [0:11:58] I agree. I agree, 100%. [0:12:00] Hands-on. [0:12:01] Hands-on. And so this is... And I think that speaks to, I mean, I've, I've, um, spoken with, uh, Chairman Dickey about this, and like I say, with Commissioner Harper, and, you know, it has the support of the speaker's office as well. And so I think it, uh, the fact that it is a joint House and Senate study committee, um, I think shows that the legislature, um, understands, um, just where our ag economy is right now. And of course, so much of it, uh, so much of our fortunes lie with what happens on the federal level, but still, we can explore things that we can do on the state level to, um, to try to help our, our family farms. [0:12:40] So, uh, is there any further discussion? I don't... Um, okay, I believe we have a s- uh, we have a, uh, motion due pass and a second. And if there's not any further discussion, um, all in favor, please, uh, signify by saying aye. [0:12:56] Aye. [0:12:57] Aye. [0:12:57] All right. No opposed. I think it passes unanimously. So I look forward to serving on this committee with some of y'all, and I know everybody's got other meetings they've got to attend to or bill prep, you know. [0:13:07] I'll make a motion we adjourn. [0:13:08] A motion to adjourn, and I think it's done. Hey, everybody that's in favor of adjourning, please rise.