James Jan-Feb 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 16
G EORGIA’S RURAL CE NTE R
PLANTING THE SEEDS OF
RURAL PROSPERITY
An interactive experience at the Georgia National Fair illustrated how
innovative ideas can cultivate economic strength.
Every year, more than half a million
visitors experience Georgia agriculture
at the Georgia National Fair, and
every year, the Georgia Department of
Agriculture and Georgia Grown strive to
increase awareness of and appreciation
for Georgia’s number one industry by
enhancing their signature building at
the Georgia National Fairgrounds and
Agricenter in Perry. This October, when
they stepped through the doors of the
Georgia Grown building, fair-goers had
the opportunity to journey from seed
to shirt with Georgia’s top-ranking row
crop through the Seed-to-Shirt Georgia
Cotton Experience.
Created in partnership with Georgia’s
Rural Center and Magnolia Loom, the
Seed to Shirt Experience led visitors on
a step-by-step tour from the cotton field
to the printing press to help Georgians
understand one way the state’s
agribusiness industry impacts daily life.
Divided into two separate spaces, the
1,500 square-foot exhibit showcased the
growth cycle of the
cotton plant using
videos, images, text
and a variety of
opportunities to see, touch and take
home genuine Georgia cotton. Visitors
also learned about the various
technologies, machinery and processes
involved in cotton planting, harvesting
and processing.
Visitors then ventured with the cotton fiber
through a doorway to experience the
steps involved in transforming cotton fiber
into clothing—from spinning the lint
to knitting the yarn, then from fabric
finishing to sewing, and finally to shirt
dyeing and printing. Throughout the
ten-day fair, visitors could watch as t-shirts
were pieced and sewn together by
representatives from Snellville-based
FAM USA, while in another area,
Georgia-grown cotton t-shirts could be
purchased and printed with a variety of
designs while visitors watch.
In addition to helping the public
understand the process of producing
100% cotton garments, the Seed to
Shirt Experience highlighted skilled
labor opportunities in Georgia, the
environmentally sound processes that
are practiced in the U.S. to create cotton
garments, and, perhaps most significant,
the impact on the state’s economy that
100% Georgia-grown and -manufactured
products could make.
Agriculture and related industries
contribute more than $74 billion to
Georgia’s economy every year. Although
Georgia farms lead the nation in the
production of several agricultural goods,
most of them leave the state or country to
be transformed into finished products. This
is the case with cotton, which Georgia
farmers produce more of than any other
state but Texas. Throughout rural Georgia,
once-thriving textile manufacturing
communities today are dotted with
empty infrastructure and plagued by
the economic hardships brought about in
large part by that industry’s shift overseas.
The situation is familiar to Sandersville
native Zeke Chapman, owner of
Magnolia Loom. A brand built to create
100% American-made garments,
Magnolia Loom is working to bring as
much of the production process back to
Georgia as possible. The brand’s seedto-shirt approach means that Georgiagrown cotton never ventures outside
the southern United States from the time
the fiber leaves the field until a finished
garment is ready to be purchased.
Zeke Chapman dries a printed design on a 100% Georgia-grown, USA-made shirt featured at the Georgia
National Fair with one of the Georgia Grown Fair exclusive designs for the back of the t-shirt.
PROJECT PARTNERS