b'AGRICULTUREA National Movement:Demand American GrownGo With The Label You KnowSuper Fruit: Blueberries represent more than a $721 million economic impact in GeorgiaF rom the cotton sheets on your bed to the food you eat and the clothes you wear, the agriculture industry impacts everyone. A big job considering that the worlds population is anticipated to reach 9.8 billion by 2050an increase of 2.2 billion people. The jump in population will create the need for farmers worldwide to increase food production by 70 percent.As the demand for more food continues to rise, the number offrom 26 from the previous year, according to the Georgia Farm farms operating in the U.S. are on the decline. In 1935, there wereBureau.approximately 6.8 million farms scattered across the country; how-ever, that number has fallen to about two million, with 96With the closing of family farms, comes a sharp decline in direct percent designated as family farms. farm jobs. The agriculture and food sector employs approximately 22 million full- and part-time workers (11 percent of U.S. em-The landscape of the family farm is changing. For many farmers,ployment). On a much smaller scale, direct on-farm jobs account the financial picture resembles a doomsday scenario as farm debtfor only 2.6 million workers, rep-resenting less than 2 percent of reaches $416 billion. Adding to the bleak situation, last year, theAmericas workforce.number of Chapter 12 family farm bankruptcies increased by more than 20 percent. Saving the Family FarmA seventh-generation farmer, Russ Goodman, from Clinch County, In 2019, Georgia was ranked No. 3 (behind California andGeorgia, is passionate about saving family farms and understands Wisconsin) with 41 family farms filing Chapter 12 bankruptcies, upthe local and global economic importance they represent. BUSINESS + CULTURE 27'