(dramatic music) - [David] "A Fork in the Road" is brought to you by... (gentle music) - [Narrator] Georgia soil is rich.

Its climate, agreeable.

Its agricultural variety, exceptional.

That's why we're Nature's Favorite State.

Georgia Grown supports the farmers and producers who work the land and keep us fed because we all grow better, together.

Find out more about Georgia Agriculture at GeorgiaGrown.com.

- [Narrator] Since 1917, the "Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin" has been Georgia's primary resource for all things agriculture, from thousands of classifieds for livestock, farm supplies, equipment, and homegrown goods, to the latest and most important farming news.

- The fascinating and ever-changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers, and bakers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more, straight ahead at the fork in the road.

("Howling at the Moon" by D Fine Us) - [David] This week, we explore a wide variety of agriculture in Georgia.

From a South Georgia cattle ranch, producing quality meat that is true to nature, and a group of cotton-growing families with a Southern drawl that have joined forces and expanded their repertoire, to a clothing brand that is bringing pride to the Peach State.

And we begin this week down in Milledgeville to meet a veteran who is using the power of farming to heal his fellow soldiers.

(gentle music) Down in Milledgeville, Georgia, there's a special destination known as Comfort Farms, and it's here, you'll find Jon Jackson, a farmer, businessman, brilliant marketer, and community leader, who was also a soldier with invisible wounds.

- [Jon] Every time I went back to the VA, there was a new person I had to talk to.

I had to reopen Pandora's box every single time.

There was no progress being made on my part.

In fact, it seemed like the therapists were more excited about my war stories than actually helping me.

And that does nothing for me.

- [David] Living with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury sustained in combat, Jon has since created this non-profit known as Stag Vets.

- [Jon] Stag Vets was born out of the necessity to help the issues that veterans are facing from pretty much the root down.

And I don't talk about the root up.

I'm talking about the root down.

Veterans like myself want to be whole again.

We want to have a mission, we want to have a purpose in life.

We don't want to have a million pills that we have to take just to sustain.

I didn't come into the world that way.

I don't want to leave out of the world that way.

- [David] And from that developed the nation's first Acute Veterans Crisis Agriculture Center, Comfort Farms, where the healing begins.

(gentle music) - [Jon] The farm is named after my ranger buddy, Kyle A.

Comfort.

Every combat vet who's went to war, has one unique skill, and that's the ability to problem-solve.

They problem-solve with the tools that they were given to fight war.

But back here, we don't have the tools turning back into a civilian, we don't have those tools on how to do that.

When I created Comfort Farms, it was for vets to actually have that ability and to talk to therapists who want to get out their four walls, who don't want to just sit on a couch and talk to me about my war stories.

Yes, we didn't go to war together.

We didn't fight together, but we can farm together.

We can walk out here in this beautiful property and be able to discuss my issues, if you really care.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] I think a lot of people see Jon and you know, he's everywhere, he's a marketing genius, but they don't see how much he goes and how much he works.

And all of our volunteers here, we have a lot of unsung heroes around here who come up here every day.

No one ever sees them.

A lot of them are veterans and they work the farm and they work the animals and they deal with all of the heartbreaks of a farm, whether it's death or losing crops or whatever the case may be, there's a lot of people.

And Jon's up here in the thick of it all the time, working with all the personalities, making sure that everything is flowing.

That's something that a lot of people don't see, they just see his face.

So it's just been really cool to work with him.

And just an honor to be a part of it here.

- [David] Jon also believes there could be a sea change on how small farms should be run and the role they can play in communities around the world.

- [Jon] Right now, if you don't have, you know, 100 to 500 to 1,000 acres, you know, many people don't consider you a farmer.

But what I wanted to show is that, you know, small farm, intense production, focusing on niche products, specialty products can prove profitable for small family farms.

As a nonprofit, our whole goal is to create a sustainable agribusiness, to help fund our operation, to make sure that vets can come in and have a safe space.

We do that by providing a service to our community, which is wholesome food.

When this country was founded back in 1776, there were no large farms.

They were all small farmers.

What happened was, convenience got in the way.

When your food is local, you have food security.

When communities invest in their small family farms in the community, it enables these farmers to grow.

We're seeing a shift in going back to how things used to be.

(gentle music) - [David] Those who know John well recognized that he always has a next step in motion, a plan B, and a plan C. So even after losing massive amounts of funding in the blink of an eye, because of pandemic, Jon himself didn't blink.

- My ability to go to these restaurants was shut.

It was done.

I literally had 16 seconds to figure out what my next move would be.

So less than 24 hours, I created a virtual online marketplace.

I didn't know where it would go.

And so I really engaged my community.

I haven't engaged my community like this before.

I had no idea that we would recoup all of our losses in less than 10 days.

We were in the perfect position to provide a really special service to our community in this time.

Today, what we have, it's our Saturday.

People pre-order, they go on our website, stagvetsinc.org.

And then there's our virtual farmers market that's there, they go in, we kind of update the list every week when we get new product in, so people put in when they want to come pick their orders up, it's really easy.

What we have too is we invite chefs who are, many of them are out of work, we give them a reason to kinda come down, we have a new chef every week to kind of build some inspiration, you know, get in the farm.

We want to teach the people that come to Comfort Farms and purchase food that the way we honor the life of these animals is by eating the whole animal.

In order for the farmer to be sustainable, he has to sell all of the animal.

We're doing pig face tacos and lengua tacos and grilled heart tacos.

All these types of foods are not necessarily something that you're gonna see in the supermarket.

But what we want people to do is kind of push past their comfort zone, taste these items.

I guarantee you they're going to be freaking awesome, okay.

And then by people tasting them and understanding, wow, how delicious they are, now we can go ahead and sell them more, because those are the things that we need to sell as farmers in order to make profit.

Today, we've got Chef Nick Walker, he's Executive Chef from the Cobb Galleria.

There's a symbiotic relationship between on the farm, learning from him, he's learning from us new varieties, using new things that he hasn't used before in the kitchen.

And it's really getting his creative juices going, the community benefits from it.

They do those pre-orders, they pick up, and then they're on their way.

All my customers that come here today, you can ask them, how did they like this experience?

And they tell you that they don't want it to change.

- [David] This mighty nonprofit is a shining example of resilience, mixed with good intentions and a healthy dose of Georgia Grown.

Our next fork in the road takes us to Omega, right in the heart of Georgia's cotton country where folks like to talk about their Southern drawl.

(upbeat music) If you've never seen a cotton gin in action, it's an amazing sight indeed.

- [Brian] The cotton gin is very similar to the mechanical pickers that you see today.

They all work the same as they did 50 years ago.

They're just a lot faster.

Eli Whitney was probably producing a bale a week, where this one's producing 50 bales an hour, that's the difference.

We try to grow the finest cotton that we can right in this area, our coastal plains, the sandy loam that we have here is ideal for our cotton.

So we can grow some really good quality cotton here.

And it pairs so well with our peanut crop that comes from here.

55% of the peanuts used in the United States come from an 80-mile radius of where we're standing right now.

And the cotton production matches so well with the rotation for peanut.

So it just makes it a great fit for this area.

Southern Drawl Cotton was formed about three years ago and a group of nine family farms went together to try to add some value to the cotton that we were growing.

We thought we had to do something better than making bales of cotton and putting them on a ship in the port of Savannah and sending them to India and Pakistan and China and then having them send them back in high-priced shirts and sheets and whatnot.

So we got in the sheet business.

All of our cotton comes through the Omega gin.

This is the modern-day version of Eli Whitney's invention, so many years ago today, a gin that's spitting out about 50 bales of cotton an hour.

- [David] Like Brian, Michael Brooks also has a love for cotton and farming.

His family has been farming in South Georgia since the 1800s.

It's in his blood and his roots.

- [Michael] So basically, we're combing and this is how you tell the fiber and this will get cut.

Everybody that's involved is either friends or family and we just try to keep it that way.

And we're trying to bring part of our farms into your home.

We looked at having retail stores and it just, we couldn't see where that was feasible at the time, and once online sales started going to a lot of stores, then it opened up that avenue for us.

We'd been fortunate and really excited about the future of Southern Drawl.

So you get a grade on color, you get a grade on how long those fibers are within there, then you get a grade on how strong those fibers are.

I am weaving it for you.

Now, we're just making yarn.

That's all it is, just twisting it up.

That's how they used to do it, years ago.

We make about 53 or 54 cents a sheet, out of a bale of cotton, normal sheets are about 70, 72.

That's how much difference it is, treating our sheets.

It takes a lot more cotton to make.

So we figured if we were going to have to be expensive, being all made here in the U.S., we'd better make the best product that we could, with the cotton we're growing.

We're proud of our box and the way it happens.

This tells you a little bit about the sheets and kind of our warranty and how to handle it.

You'll get a card in it and it'll tell you what farmer, what farm that cotton represents that it comes off of.

This particular set has got the rope drawl as a fitted sheet.

Well, you can get it both ways.

We have an elastic sheet for fitted, and we have the rope drawl.

I was a marketing major and you always try to tie some kind of niche.

So the first time you use it, you'll actually come through and pull these to even it up.

There's a space that would be on the side that allow you to adjust.

And then after you use that, you just pull it in.

And once you get it tight, you lock it in and that locks it down.

And so we're really proud of that.

- [David] It also keeps it from slipping off.

- If it comes off your bed, I'm telling you, you've worked really hard at night to make it happen.

That's right.

This is just a two-piece set of our towels.

You can get a six-piece set or just two large towels, but they make really good gifts.

- [David] It's the quality, softness, purity of Georgia cotton that these farming families believe in.

It's why they continue to grow.

It's how they sell with honesty.

And they say nothing is more rewarding than the feedback.

- [Brian] I personally call everybody that buys a set of sheets.

A lot of people wouldn't believe that, but I make an effort to call them to just say "thank you," 'cause I want people to know how much we appreciate them.

They can buy sheets anywhere, but they chose to buy them from us.

And they're shocked that someone would call them and say "thank you" and check on them and make sure that everything's okay.

But I tell them we is Southern Drawl.

We want to treat them the way we want to be treated.

So we're going to treat our customers the same way.

And if something's not right, oh, we'll fix it.

- [Michael] Our hardest sale is the first order that they buy from us.

90% of our people after they buy the first order, they come back in time, and it's a repeat.

(upbeat music) - I'm not kidding when I say I made a lot of friends around the country.

I have a girl outside of Boston, Massachusetts, we text back and forth nearly every day.

I can't talk to her and she can't talk to me 'cause she can't understand me and I can't understand her.

But she's a dental hygienist.

And when she's cleaning teeth, she's selling sheets for me.

Well, we've become very good friends.

I took some of these bolls and pick them off and sent them to her.

I said, some of them will be open when they get there.

And the ones that are not, just put them in your windowsill, and they opened up, and that was fascinating to her.

She said it was a big thing every morning to go look at the bolls and see which ones had opened and which ones were cracked, cause' they'll [indistinct].

You take one and put it in your dash of your car and it'll be opened up.

The warmer it is, the more it'll, the faster it'll open.

- [David] So these Georgia farmers seem to sleep well at night.

You could say it's because they work so hard every day, but odds are it's because they're sleeping in some of the softest sheets in the U.S.A., made with a genuine Southern drawl.

From Omega to Bishop, Georgia, just outside of Watkinsville, where the magic of cotton continues with pride.

And these folks properly represent the Peach State.

This old turkey hatchery is more than meets the eye.

And if I gave you 10 guesses, you probably wouldn't come close to guessing what's in here now.

You see, there's a Georgia-born sparkling soda company creating imaginative drinks behind this door, and a successful Georgia-grown clothing company occupying the rest.

Peach State Pride is the dream child of Derek Chitwood and his wife, Kari, who have turned this old agricultural warehouse into a beautiful, creative clothing think tank.

- I started Peach State Pride back in 2009, really inspired by my love of history.

And I'm just proud of the state of Georgia.

I grew up picking peaches for my grandfather, so I've always been particularly proud of Georgia being the Peach State.

That's kind of how I came up with Peach State Pride, the name and the logo.

- We started dating in 2010, not long after Derek started Peach State Pride, and I was finishing up at Georgia Tech and started dating this guy who, I don't think he owned a belt at the time.

My mom used to talk about, she was worried that he was a sloppy dresser.

So I thought, well, that's all right.

I don't know where he's headed, but he's a nice guy.

I, you know, helped where I could.

And eventually, it just, it grew and it kept growing, and I joined the team and yeah, here we are now.

Peach State Pride is in, I think, over a hundred stores across the state and we have four stores of our own.

So it's been a wild ride, but so fun.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

- [David] And you've taught him how to dress, he looks pretty sharp.

- Yeah, I think he looks pretty good.

It's a nice belt.

- She cleaned me up a bit.

(laughing) (upbeat music) - [David] It's the brand that sticks in your head as well as the catchy logo.

- [Michael] I thought if there was an abstract logo to kinda bring people together, I thought it'd be a cool thing for Georgia.

So I came home and sketched it out, just started dreaming about it being the logo for the state of Georgia.

So I had some roommates and they said, you know you should make some T-shirts and hats, so I did that and sold them all.

And then I had a friend who owned a Ace Hardware in Royston, Georgia.

Started selling to him, and you know, before I knew it, a few other stores asked, and I was in the clothing business.

- [David] Derek and Carrie's love for history is apparent when you look all around the office.

- We walked in the front door, it actually looked like this, all these business cards from back in the '50s and '60s and '70s, is kinda how they kept up with the contact.

We thought, before we start demo in this place, let's save all these.

- We added ours.

- Save all these.

Yeah, we put ours in there as well.

- [David] And Georgia artists and landmarks actually make their way onto the clothing, making a unique statement for Georgia's Southern culture.

Beauty, communities, and agriculture alike.

- Iron Horse is on Highway 15, between Greensboro and Watkinsville.

And this particular shirt is really neat because the artist that did it, Michael Davenport, he's kind of an Athens icon.

He had an accident when he was a child and he doesn't have any hands, so he paints everything with his mouth.

- Our Peches shirt, this was by Lucy Reiser.

She's from Marietta, Georgia.

And if you're not familiar with this stand, it's a peach stand that's between Eatonton and Milledgeville on 441.

And they, famously or infamously, wrote "Peches," on the side of the stand, so people stop and get their picture made there.

And it's just, it's a really cool iconic peach stand.

- [David] And it's not just the peach that's making appearances.

It's the alma maters.

Some of the printing is done offsite, but much is still done here, especially some of the tailor-made, small-town shirts.

- [Michael] One thing that we do at Peach State Pride is we offer what we call our town-specific tee, and we have dozens and dozens of different towns.

And you can place an order online.

- Somebody can order one Sandersville, Georgia shirt online and rather than them having to go to a store or us having to print a hundred of them, we'll print it right here.

- [David] A fun, loving couple with creative ideas, turning an old turkey hatchery into a business that helps all Georgians wear their pride on their shoulders in cr?eative fashion.

From Bishop to Register, where we journey from cotton to cattle, welcome to Chatel farms.

It's a destination seemingly out of big sky country.

The cattle graze on moist grass at sunrise, as the workers watch over their diet and wellbeing.

This industry has always been a passion for Georgia businessman, Francois Leger, and he has taken his cattle business to new heights here in Georgia.

- [Francois] We're growing bulls, heifers.

We're improving the quality, so we produce a genetic and we feed those calves here.

Part of the life of the cattle is going be fed outside, the cattle will spent approximately 100 to 110 days.

And there's a barn where we're going to fatten, we're going to put more marbling into the cattle.

- [Jim] The True to Nature brand is beef that comes from cattle that were raised and fed on our Chatel farm in Georgia.

They're genetic based, black Angus cattle.

They're fed a quality ration in our unique monoslope barns.

And those barns allow the cattle to be fed, it keeps the sun off them.

In the barn, it's 20 degrees cooler than it is outside of the barn.

- [Francois] All the diet here is a vegetarian diet.

So it's no animal byproduct, nothing like that, no added hormones.

Everything is natural, strictly natural.

- [David] Getting an endeavor like this to work is a challenge indeed.

It means getting the right people in place to oversee the herds and the entire process from start to finish.

It's creating the right food source, making every move in a timely manner, and that means high-end technology and precise planning.

- [Elizabeth] We mix all of our own rations.

We have a starter ration, a grower, a transition, and a finisher.

And the simplest way to put that is the grower ration is high forage, low grain.

And the finishing ration is high grain, low forage.

- [David] Cornfields take up a huge portion of this land but it's not being grown for human consumption.

This crop is for the cows.

- [Colin] We grow two crops a year and it's about 220 acres in each crop and all this corn is just used for the cattle on this facility.

This is corn flakes.

So all the steam goes up through that steam chest, heats the corn up to 210 degrees, drops down to the rollers, and then comes out as split corn.

We got the grains, we got hay, we got split corn, we got silage.

We add all these ingredients into our box truck, which incorporates them all together, comes out on the conveyor, into the feed truck, feed truck delivers it to the cattle.

So here on this computer, we're able to track all our feed usages.

We're able to see any discrepancies and correct any discrepancies.

This is a lock and track system.

This tracks intake of all the cattle in this facility.

So this computer tells you how much each animal gets fed individually, each day.

And then over here, then, we have, you know, their intake for the last 14 days.

So we can see if, you know, if something changed.

So we take care of them on a daily basis, 24/7, 365 days of the year.

- [David] Authenticity is important to the folks at Chatel Farms and the True to Nature brand.

Francois and his wife take this mission to heart and have been known to bring their work home or at least to the backyard grill.

- [Francois] I have here True to Nature steaks.

I have here strip loin, ribeyes, and also a tenderloin.

So here, you have a ribeye steak, and what is important here, it's to see the marbling in the steaks, which is going to give you the flavor.

When you look at here is the strip, you have marbling in it and you need to look at the same thing.

Now, usually a ribeye has more fat than the strip.

So it depends on your taste.

If you already like it leaner, but tender, you always have the tenderloin, which in this case, you see marbling in the tenderloin, but the tenderloin is a piece of meat that is way leaner and is extremely tender.

(upbeat music) We did three minutes on each side and the grill at 450 to 500 degree Fahrenheit.

My wife like it, medium-rare.

And as you can also, when we cut it, how tender the meat is.

- [David] Agricultural wonders of Georgia are well-presented through these fields of cotton and the companies that utilize this crop to perfection and through the cattle farms and other livestock that are raised with care on these South Georgia farms.

There's true passion seen from the farmers who love this industry and are always maneuvering to make a change for the better, when it comes to quality and value.

I'm David Zelski.

See you at the next fork in the road.

(dramatic music) "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by... (soothing music) - [Narrator] Georgia soil is rich.

Its climate, agreeable.

Its agricultural variety, exceptional.

That's why we're Nature's Favorite State.

Georgia Grown supports the farmers and producers who work the land and keep us fed because we all grow better together.

Find out more about Georgia Agriculture at GeorgiaGrown.com.

- [Narrator] Georgia FSIS provides efficient and accurate third-party inspection services to members of the industry.

We inspect various fresh commodities, including peanuts, fruits, vegetables, and pecans.

The use of the inspection service ensures the shipment of high-quality products and enhances Georgia's reputation as a supplier of superior agricultural products.