Georgia Farm Bureau president to speak at ABAC

TIFTON – Georgia Farm Bureau President Gerald Long will speak at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 27 at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

The event, hosted by the college’s Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow Club, will be conducted at the Chapel of All Faiths on the ABAC campus.

Long, a 1969 ABAC graduate, was named president of Georgia Farm Bureau in 2016 when his predecessor, Zippy Duvall, was elected president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

“We are fortunate that we have an ABAC alumnus in this role and look forward to him being on campus,” said Becca Turner, adviser for ABAC’s ACT chapter.

A Decatur County farmer, Long raises cattle and grows peanuts, vegetables, corn, cotton, hay, small grains and timber with his family on their farm near Bainbridge. He was first elected to the GFB Board of Directors in 1999 as a 9th District director, representing 14 counties in Southwest Georgia. In 2006, delegates in the GFB South Region elected him South Georgia vice president. GFB voting delegates statewide had designated Long to serve as GFB first vice president annually 2008-2015.

A Farm Bureau member since 1970, Long serves on the Decatur County Farm Bureau Board of Directors as secretary/treasurer and is a past president and vice president of the Decatur County Farm Bureau. He also is a member of the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association and serves on the board of the Decatur County Cattlemen’s Association. He represents GFB on the Georgia Beef Board, where he serves as treasurer.

Long was a founding board member of the Georgia Peanut Producers, the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, and the Flint River Water Planning Policy Center. He also serves on the Decatur County Industrial Development Authority.

Long majored in crop science and animal science at ABAC before serving six months of active duty in the Georgia Army National Guard and six years of reserve duty. Long and his wife, Janice, have three adult children and two grandchildren. They are members of First Baptist Church of Bainbridge.

For more information on the event, interested persons can contact Turner at (229) 391-4958 or via e-mail at [email protected]. The event is free and open to ABAC students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as the community.