Georgia Magazine - January 2015 - 21

tain that local presence," he says.
"We were struggling to meet needs
of this state even before the Great
Recession hit, but when it did, that
really hurt our capabilities."
Tough decisions had to be made
following budget cuts in 2009, 2010
and 2011.
"We were getting cuts every few
months," says Brown. "It was against
our nature, but we had to tell some
counties, 'We're sorry, we can't provide a county agent at this time.'"
The number of county ag agents
in the state dropped from 159 to 90,
and it was 2013 before UGA Extension saw budget relief, according to
Brown.
"We're still not swimming in
money, but the Legislature has been
trying to help us by giving us some
positions back," he says, noting the
number of county agents has grown
to 130 while there are currently
about 100 4-H agents and 40 family
and consumer science agents.
"We can't be static," says Brown.
"We can't insist that the younger
generation do things the way we did
it. Ag is changing so much with satellite-guided tractors and precision
application irrigation equipment, but
Georgia is well poised to be a huge
agriculture producer. Ag is still the
No. 1 industry in this state, putting
billions of dollars into the economy.
In the next 100 years, it will be just
as important, or even more so, to
keep that economic engine going in
Georgia, and UGA Extension will be
here to help."
Jackie Kennedy is a freelance
writer living in LaGrange and author of books that explore the electric
co-op histories of Diverse Power in
LaGrange, Jackson EMC in Jefferson
and Upson EMC in Thomaston.

web exclusive

January 2015

For more on University of
Georgia Extension, its origins
and digital library, see page
21A of the January 2015 digital
web exclusive
edition at www.georgiamaga
zine.org.

Extension and the EMCs
Since the 1930s, University of Georgia Extension and the electric membership corporations (EMCs) have worked together to improve the lives of Georgia
families.
Extension observed its centennial anniversary last year and the signing of
the Smith-Lever Act that brought it into existence. Over the past decade, many of
Georgia's EMCs have celebrated their 75th anniversary, recognizing the strides
made to bring electricity to farms and rural families after establishment of the Rural
Electriﬁcation Administration (REA) in 1935.
"We have a very common mission, and that's rural economic development,"
says Steve Brown, interim associate dean for UGA Extension. "It's what we both
did-making rural communities economically viable by bringing electricity to the
farm and improving agriculture. These efforts
went hand-in-hand as we worked to bring
prosperity to rural parts of the state; it was Extension and the EMCs that were right there."
Jill Severn, head of Access and Outreach
at UGA's Richard B. Russell Library for Political
Research and Studies, agrees.
"If you think about Georgia and its counties, what are the organizations that have had
representation in each of these counties?"
says Severn. "Cooperative Extension and the
EMCs are right at the top of the list."
There's much overlap in the histories of
Extension and the EMCs, according to Severn,
who says it's most apparent when considering
how the state's electric cooperatives were
1948
organized in the late 1930s. County Extension
agents shared with farmers the opportunities
available through the REA and helped them
At Central Georgia EMC in Jackson,
form co-ops to obtain electricity on their farms
two home economists discuss an early
and in their homes.
oil light lamp that was converted into
"These county agents had the skill and the an electric lamp.
experience, and they knew the community, so
they served as liaisons for people who put the EMCs together," says Severn.
In the years that followed, as electricity made its way into rural homes, Extension home economists taught practical lessons on cooking and food preservation,
and electric cooperatives hired home advisers tasked with much the same mission.
Another overlap of the mission of both Extension and the EMCs is their continuing aim to make rural areas as vibrant as they can be, according to Severn.
"Both the EMCs and Extension faced an evolving set of circumstances, and solutions for rural Georgia counties in the 1940s aren't necessarily the solution today,"
she says. "But both are still here and still play a role in building the vibrancy of
their communities."
The EMCs continue to work in concert with UGA Extension to improve conditions in their communities, according to Brown.
"Some of our rural communities are totally dependent on agriculture, not
only production but processing at the local peanut-buying point or local cotton
gin," says Brown. "All of these allied agribusinesses are dependent upon affordable, reliable energy. That's one of the driving factors whether the farmer makes it
or not in this economic environment. For example, if you're a poultry producer, you
must have an energy-efﬁcient poultry house, and the EMCs work with farmers to
provide that."
More online at www.georgiamagazine.org

http://www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Georgia Magazine - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - January 2015