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Annual PB&J day at Georgia Capitol a crowd pleaser for both public and powerful goober fans

Published

1 month ago

March 4, 2025

Staff Editor

georgiarecorder.com – Chris Pae – 2025-03-04 13:19:00

Annual PB&J day at Georgia Capitol a crowd pleaser for both public and powerful goober fans

by Chris Pae, Georgia Recorder
March 4, 2025

To celebrate National Peanut Month, the Georgia Peanut Commission kicked off Peanut Butter & Jelly Day at the Capitol on Tuesday, with lawmakers going nuts for grilled PB&J sandwiches and peanut candy courtesy of the Georgia Peanut Commission and other sponsors.

Even House Speaker Jon Burns took time to appreciate the humble Georgia staple.

“Peanuts are so important, obviously, to the economy of Georgia, to our farm economy and to our growers who’ve grown them for generations,” he said. “And I’m looking over here at the Atlanta Community Food Bank, how important it is from a nutritional standpoint to all Georgians. Whether you’re in urban Georgia, or rural Georgia or around the world, peanuts make a difference in people’s nutritional lives. But these guys do great work. They go out and fight the weather, every year this crowd sustains us all. I’m very proud of them and appreciate them being here today.”

From left, Rep. Steven Meeks, Speaker Jon Burns and Georgia Peanut Commission Chair Joe Boddiford celebrate peanuts at the Georgia Capitol. Ross Williams

According to commission chairman Joe Boddiford, PB&J day has been held at the Capitol annually for 25 years. Georgia has a deep-rooted history with peanuts, and they continue to be a staple crop used in many products today. Georgia is the national leader of peanut production at nearly 3 billion pounds in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Georgia grows over half the peanuts in the nation and that’s about 14 other states. We make good enough yields that we generally make a profit,” Boddiford said. “The number one thing that Georgia peanuts go into is peanut butter, they’re in a lot of candy bars. And whenever they crush them, they create peanut oil and that’s a very good cooking oil.

“Another one of their uses is in a fortified infant nutrition program, like Mana, saving a starving child’s life,” he said.

Mana Nutrition is a company based in Fitzgerald that produces nutrient-dense food using Georgia peanut butter for children overseas with severe malnutrition. The company recently made headlines when the Trump Administration terminated contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which contracts with Mana, Feb. 26. The contracts were reinstated yesterday.

The University of Georgia has a dedicated “Peanut Team” as a part of its agricultural and environmental sciences. The team is composed of scientists who conduct agricultural research and provide environmental data to farmers.

“We work with the growers first-hand,” said Walter Scott Monfort, the Peanut Team’s lead scientist. “We have an agent in every county that works directly with the growers to produce peanuts. We also work with growers on problems, on anything that’s going on. We’re the non-biased source for the growers of the state when it comes to peanuts.”

Monfort said the team always faces difficulties but recent years have been especially tough.

“There’s always challenges every year, a lot of them environmental when it comes to weather. The weather in the last two years has caused us to lose a lot of quality and yield, but in most years we do really well,” he said “But we’re in a climate that grows very good crops, but it also grows very good pests. So we have to constantly work on trying to manage those pests.”

Sadly, not everyone can enjoy a Georgia peanut. Peanuts are one of the most common allergies, but Boddiford said peanut scientists are cracking the case.

“They work with pediatricians (in) early introduction to peanuts in the first six months of a child’s life, pretty well guarantees they don’t have an allergy to peanuts,” he said “There’s still some work going on a peanut vaccine or something that you can give a child or an adult and help them to either get over it or be at least less sensitive to it so it’s not the dangerous thing that it was.”

Pile of peanut butter sandwiches. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Reporter Ross Williams contributed to this article.

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Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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News from the South - Georgia News Feed

Bond hearing for man accused of murdering pregnant ex | FOX 5 News

Published

32 minutes ago

April 3, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – FOX 5 Atlanta – 2025-04-03 18:11:58

SUMMARY: Jose Monroy, 20, appeared in Gwinnett County court for a bond hearing related to charges stemming from the murder of 16-year-old Mia Campos last July. Initially charged with false statements, the charges expanded to include felony murder, malice murder, and fetocide, as investigations revealed he was the father of Campos’s unborn child. Prosecutors oppose bond, citing Monroy as a flight risk, a danger to the community, and a potential witness intimidator. The case also includes allegations of child molestation and statutory rape. Monroy remains in jail following additional charges of sexual abuse. The hearing is ongoing.

Jesus Monroy faces charges of malice murder and felony murder in the death of 16-year-old Mia Campos. On April 2, 2025, he had a bond hearing.

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News from the South - Georgia News Feed

Club Car Championship’s 156 player field set to tee it up in Savannah

Published

12 hours ago

April 3, 2025

Staff Editor

www.wsav.com – Genevieve Lund – 2025-04-03 07:03:00

SUMMARY: The Club Car Championship, Savannah’s only professional golf tournament, begins today at The Landings, featuring 156 emerging golfers from the Korn Ferry Tour. This is the eighth annual event, offering a chance to win a $1 million purse while supporting local charities through ticket sales. Highlights include military appreciation day, a Spin Doctors concert, and the Seersucker Blazer award. Tickets start at $10, with free admission for military and first responders. The tournament runs from April 3-6, showcasing top talent and providing networking opportunities for sponsors, making it a significant event for the community and golf fans alike.

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The post Club Car Championship's 156 player field set to tee it up in Savannah appeared first on www.wsav.com

News from the South - Georgia News Feed

Georgia Senate passes ban on DEI in schools and colleges as 2025 session winds down

Published

18 hours ago

April 3, 2025

Staff Editor

georgiarecorder.com – Maya Homan – 2025-04-03 00:48:00

by Maya Homan, Georgia Recorder
April 3, 2025

Lawmakers in the Senate concluded the 39th legislative day of the 2025 session in the early hours of Thursday morning by advancing a bill that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs or policies from all state public schools and universities.

The bill, which effectively hollowed out legislation originally aimed at increasing sick days and maternity leave for public school teachers, passed in a contentious 33-21 vote, restricting the freedom educational institutions have to discuss racial justice issues even as lawmakers across the hall voted to expand First Amendment protections based on religion only hours before.

House Bill 127’s sponsor in the Senate, Sylvania Republican Sen. Max Burns, argued that the bill was aimed at preventing discrimination in Georgia’s public educational institutions.

“DEI is the antithesis of equality,” Burns said on the Senate floor. “If you believe in equality, if you believe in equal opportunity, this bill does not strip you of that. It enhances it.”

Democrats swiftly condemned the bill, arguing that a ban on DEI would be a return to an era of “state-sponsored discrimination.” They also feared it could be used to censor topics like slavery’s role in the civil war and other ways that race and racism have shaped American history.

“I don’t want to say DEI, I want to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Derek Mallow, a Savannah Democrat. “If there is a need to ban DEI, then what is the opposite to diversity? Well the opposite to diversity is uniformity, and to be uniform means that you lack any other options for anyone to be different, to look different, to talk different, to walk different, to be different.”

They also proposed a total of 20 amendments — the most on any individual bill in living memory — but all 20 amendments were dismissed without a vote by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.

“This is a sad day for the Georgia state Senate, one of the saddest I’ve ever been in in 10 years, quite frankly,” said Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, an Augusta Democrat.

“This doesn’t represent the people of Georgia,” he continued. “Tonight was a night the Republican Party said they’re going to take Georgia backwards — backwards to days when people did not have full rights.”

The bill now returns to the House, which must agree to the Senate’s amendments before the bill can advance to the governor’s desk.

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