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.”

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.”

Reporter Ross Williams contributed to this article.

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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Georgia Senate OKs bill to outlaw gender-affirming care for inmates in state custody

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder
March 4, 2025

A bill banning gender-affirming treatments for inmates in state custody passed the Georgia Senate Monday.

Senate Bill 185’s sponsor, Cataula Republican Sen. Randy Robertson, said there are three lawsuits ongoing from inmates seeking gender-affirming care and he wants to nip the issue in the bud.

“When you see the tsunami coming, a lot of people wait until it’s at the shore, to start sandbagging and evacuating everybody and doing what you need to do,” he said. “I think if you look at the temperature that not only are we experiencing here in the United States, and obviously by these three lawsuits, people are attempting to do this, and it is the responsibility of this body and the body across the way to make sure we are prepared for what comes down the road, because as someone who understands crisis management and other things, you don’t wait.”

The bill passed with some bipartisan support, with several Democrats joining all Republicans voting in favor of the bill, and others simply not voting. Sens. Sonya Halpert, Ed Harbison and Elena Parent crossed party lines to support the bill, while Sens. Tonya Anderson, Jason Esteves, Randal Mangham and Nikki Merritt did not vote.

Roswell Republican Sen. John Albers gleefully pointed out the disunity among the Democrats.

“Let’s be honest, you as Democrats, in your own caucus are divided on this issue,” he said. “Throughout the last several votes, some of you voted with us, and others took a walk and did not vote at all. The overwhelming number of Georgians and Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, support this bill and the others. Candidly, if you vote against this bill, you are politically tone deaf.”

Parent proposed an amendment that would have allowed some inmates to continue taking hormones they had already been taking.

“I don’t believe that taxpayers should be responsible for funding the surgeries outlined in lines 68-69 and 71-72, including gender affirming surgeries, cosmetic procedures, or prosthetics,” Parent said. “But on the other hand, I believe that denying transgender prisoners access to gender affirming hormones that they are already taking, and in some cases may have been taking for years, is cruel and unnecessary.”

The Senate voted down the amendment.

Halpern characterized the bill as a distraction.

“Not one tax dollar in Georgia has ever been spent on sex change surgeries for inmates, so let’s not pretend this is about fiscal responsibility,” she said. “This bill simply makes explicit what is already the practice in Georgia, and yet here we are debating this as if it were some looming crisis, as if Georgia’s prisons were on the verge of becoming gender-affirming care centers at the taxpayer’s expense. Let me be clear, that is not the reality here in Georgia.”

“But I am also a pragmatist,” she added, “and the simple truth is that I cannot in good conscience support taxpayer-funded medical procedures for prisoners that we do not provide to law-abiding citizens who are struggling every day to afford basic health care.”

Democrats who opposed the bill characterized it as cruel and unconstitutional.

“I know good and well that public polling does not support gender-affirming care for people who are incarcerated,” said Stone Mountain Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson. “But I am keenly aware of our history, a history in which public opinion has often not been on the right side of justice, a history in which public polling has often sided with the majority and further isolated and forsaken the minority. I know this is not politically popular, but I stand here today urging my colleagues to vote no on this bill, to vote no as a sign of your commitment to humanity. Vote no for dignity. Colleagues, I beg you, do not let public polling persuade you to do something that you know in your heart is fundamentally unconstitutional, and quite frankly, is downright immoral.”

Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat, said the bill could be seen as a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.

“The Eighth Amendment being the one that says no cruel and unusual punishment,” he said. “I.e. you can’t deny medical care while you’re incarcerated because you don’t have the means to go get your own care. You’re stuck. So the state has to provide your health care. And the study committee in question was the safety and welfare of all individuals in the Georgia Department of Corrections. And yet, this bill just exempts medical care from one group of those individuals.”

Robertson said he welcomes prospective lawsuits.

“People came to the committee and said this will open up more opportunity for individuals to sue, and my response to that is I’m fine with that,” he said. “Every piece of legislation that comes out of this building is subject to being challenged in court. We say it many times, you can write the best piece of legislation you want, but until it is evaluated and pressure-tested by a man or woman wearing a black robe, then you really don’t know how good the legislation is.”

The Senate separately passed a bill Monday banning puberty blocking medications for minors.

The Senate has previously passed anti-transgender bills including bills to ban gender-affirming treatments from transgender state employees and their children on the state health care plan and to keep transgender girls off girls’ school sports teams. The House has passed its own transgender sports ban. The bills have until April 4 to make it to the governor’s desk.

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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SUMMARY: Dr. Cora Thompson, an educator dedicated to shaping future teachers, channeled her grief over the loss of her dog, Angel, into a children’s book titled *Cora and Angel’s Furr-tastic Adventure*. Angel, a beloved companion, was adored by both Dr. Thompson and the Savannah State University community. After Angel’s death from cancer, Dr. Thompson wrote the book to celebrate their bond and to help children understand the lasting love between pets and their owners. The book also includes interactive questions to engage young readers, promoting learning and connection. It’s available on Amazon and Dr. Thompson’s website.

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