Vision

More Georgia-grown food on Georgia tables, from farms that can make a living, with fresh food within reach of every community.

The bigger story

Why fresh local food matters

Farms of every kind feed Georgia. We work with farms growing fresh food for Georgia tables: fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy sold close to home. Fresh local food creates more farm jobs on less land, keeps more food dollars in Georgia communities, and puts fresh, healthy food within reach of Georgia families. In Georgia, the farms growing it are often small, sell through farm stands, markets, grocers, schools, and restaurants, and include the state's most labor-intensive farms. They face real challenges: missing storage, processing, and distribution; growing competition from imported produce; and steady farm loss, with only a small share of what Georgia grows staying in the state.

Georgia food & farming by the numbers

Why these farms matter

7× the hired workers Fruit and vegetable farms hire far more people for the same land.¹

Fruit & vegetable farms

Row & field crop farms

Each figure is one hired worker per 1,000 acres, 2022

More than twice the sales from every acre on fruit and vegetable farms.¹

Fruit & vegetable farms: $1,075

Row & field crop farms: $468

Each coin is $100 in sales per acre, 2022

6 in 10 Georgia vegetable farms are small, under 50 acres.¹

684 of 1,109 vegetable farms, 2022

What’s working against them

Less than $3 of every $100 in Georgia farm sales comes from selling directly to people, stores, schools, and restaurants as local food.¹

$313M of $13.2B in farm sales went through local and regional channels, 2022

14% fewer Georgia vegetable farms in 2022 than in 2017. That’s twice the rate of decline for all farms.¹

1,287 vegetable farms in 2017, 1,109 in 2022. Dashed = net loss

Nearly 6 in 10 of the fresh fruit Americans eat is imported from other countries.²

Fresh fruit: 59% imported in 2023 (50% in 2007)

Fresh vegetables: 35% imported in 2023 (20% in 2007)

Each icon is 5% of the fresh fruit or vegetables available in the U.S. Dark = imported, light = grown in the U.S.

Sources: ¹ Emory analysis of the USDA 2017 and 2022 Census of Agriculture for Georgia. Local and regional sales are food sold directly to consumers (farmers markets, farm stands, CSAs, online) or to stores, restaurants, schools, and food hubs as local or regionally branded products; the Census sets no mileage or state boundary. Farms grouped by main product: fruit and vegetable (NAICS 1112, 1113) vs. row and field crop (grains, oilseeds, cotton, peanuts, hay, and other field crops). ² USDA Economic Research Service, 2025 (2023 data).

Read the full data brief →

What we heard

Seven shared priorities for Georgia

How do we close these gaps? In listening sessions in Atlanta, Athens, Albany, and Savannah (2025–2026), farmers and food system leaders named what it would take to keep more Georgia-grown food in Georgia and keep the farms growing it in business. These seven priorities came up across regions.

Farm viability & profitability

Fair prices, reliable markets, and the ability to make a living farming.

Missing-middle infrastructure

Cold storage, aggregation, processing, and distribution sized for farms selling into local and regional markets.

Reliable local & regional markets

Institutional, wholesale, retail, and direct markets that buy Georgia-grown.

Capital that reaches the ground

Flexible funding and fair lending, including for farmers who have reason to distrust the system.

Trusted coordination & knowledge

Shared directories, peer learning, and fewer duplicated efforts.

Farmer & farmworker voice

Structured channels to state and federal decision-makers.

Policy-ready evidence

Data and research that show what works and how it can scale.

Regional priorities

Comments are summarized and not attributed to individuals or organizations.

Atlanta metro

November 2025

Support local production on a meaningful scale, with the infrastructure and policy small growers need to succeed.
Strengthen the training pipeline: incubation, business readiness (GAP, bookkeeping, insurance), and access to capital.
Coordinate growers to create reliable supply for institutions and wholesale markets.
Build a shared policy strategy centered on farmer prosperity and local economic development.

Athens

May 2026

Strong goodwill and a culture of collaboration, but no consistent structure for maintaining it.
Unrestricted funding is the most critical and hardest-to-access support; restricted grants force organizations to compete.
Start practical pilots to keep food out of the landfill and help people use the food they receive.
No local body or voice advocates specifically for local food and agriculture.

Southwest Georgia

August 2026

Farmers need fair prices and reliable markets: not just the ability to grow, but the ability to make a living.
Consumers want local food, but the storage, transportation, processing, and distribution to connect them to farmers is missing.
The cost of land, equipment, and capital keeps new farmers out; the next generation needs real pathways.
Farmworkers are essential to the food system but often missing from these conversations.

Savannah and Coastal Georgia

September 2026

Few institutional buyers, no reliable aggregation, and no regional hub connecting farmers to markets.
High collateral requirements and the cost of certifications like GAP make it hard to grow a farm business.
Distrust of lenders is rooted in a history of land loss.
Small and mid-size growers want to be recognized as farmers, and want real, sustained commitment from institutions.

The full statewide synthesis report is coming soon on the Resources page.