Georgia Peaches Bruised by Budget Cuts

By Justin Rohrlich If Detroit couldn't have survived without General Motors (GM), if the failure of Merrill Lynch (BAC) or Citi (C) would have threatened the very existence of Wall Street and tax breaks for Exxon Mobil (XOM) and ConocoPhilips (COP) are “in the national interest,” then what to make of the University of Georgia “officially closing its peach program” at the end of July?

(To read Marty Kulas' piece on the bulb ban and LEDs, click here.)

In fact, Georgia's peach program still exists, Dr. Douglas Bailey, the head of Georgia's Department of Horticulture, tells Minyanville. However, budget cuts have had a severe effect on the state of the peach in The Peach State. “We're going to try and make some adjustments as people retire, but things won't ever be the same,” he says.

(To read Matthew Mallon's article on how an Italian and Spanish contagion is on the way, click here.)

Bailey emphasizes that the university is “still offering support” to Georgia's peach growers but “not nearly as much as what we could offer in the past.” “Last month, we were forced to close out our entire peach research and extension program on a USDA tree nut station in Byron, just south of Macon,” Bailey explains. “We'll never be able to replace that.” Though Georgia ranks third (behind South Carolina and California) in terms of overall peach production, the fruit -- which was first introduced to the Georgia coast by Franciscan monks in 1571 -- is as inextricably linked to Georgia as the Dodgers are to Brooklyn, or steel is to Pittsburgh.

(To see Jeff Harding's story on the fraudulent budge debate, click here.)

Okay, bad examples. But Bailey says that an era has indeed ended. “The writing's on the wall -- we'll never again have someone at the University of Georgia who is 100% dedicated to peaches,” he says. This has Bailey and his colleagues scrambling to plug holes that seem to be multiplying exponentially. “We'll likely merge peaches with blueberries,” he says. “It's not the best solution, but we've got to do something.” Of course, Georgia's combined peach/blueberry program presents its own set of challenges.

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