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Wed., April 10, 2013 7:52am
Two high-ranking officials have resigned at Georgia's Department of Agriculture. Chief Operating Officer Billy Skaggs and the director of the food safety division, Oscar Garrison, both resigned on March 30.
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Sat., January 5, 2013 12:00pm
A recent audit has found Georgia's Department of Agriculture failed to use E-Verify to check whether new employees were eligible to work, which state law has required of public employers since 2007.
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Fri., November 30, 2012 11:00am
State officials are offering funding to groups interested in running spay and neuter programs for pets. Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said the money is intended to make pet sterilization more affordable to ease the strain on Georgia's animal shelters.
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Wed., November 14, 2012 11:13am
Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black will appear Wednesday at the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon to urge growers to apply for a break exempting them from paying sales tax on the materials needed to grow their goods. That tax break starts Jan. 1 and is part of a package of tax changes that state lawmakers approved this year.
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Wed., July 11, 2012 6:00am
A state audit released last month said the Georgia Department of Agriculture isn’t doing enough inspections of the highest-risk food processing plants in the state. The department is changing that this month by starting to inspect the riskiest plants more often.
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Wed., June 6, 2012 5:30pm
It’s been nearly a year since Georgia enacted one of the nation’s toughest immigration crackdowns. And it’s had an impact on some small businesses, especially in agriculture.
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Wed., June 6, 2012 4:05pm
Prison inmates are working on a Vidalia onion farm in southeast Georgia. It’s part of a state program to fill empty farm jobs. The ‘transitional’ inmates packing onions at the Wayne Durrence Farm in Glennville are getting ready to return to the outside world. A part of their paychecks goes to the state to defray incarceration costs.
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Thu., September 8, 2011 6:15pm
The Georgia Department of Agriculture wants farmers to check their chemical inventory and reports any shortages to police. The call for vigilance comes in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks Sunday.
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Wed., June 22, 2011 3:33pm
Some probationers don’t want farm jobs. That’s according to state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. It was only a week ago when Black said ex-cons could help ease a farm labor shortage.
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Sat., June 11, 2011 8:21am
Gov. Nathan Deal has received the results of a Department of Agriculture survey of farmers to determine whether growers are suffering a labor shortage. Deal’s spokeswoman said the governor will review the data and comment on it next week.
