Top-ranked ag official to address farm summit

Nov. 15—ALBANY — The nation's top expert providing technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners will serve as keynote speaker at an Agriculture Empower Summit in Albany. The Sherrod Institute will host Terry Cosby, chief of the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, on Thursday at Resora.

"We are delighted Mr. Cosby will be meeting and speaking with black and underserved farmers in southwest Georgia whom we serve," Sherrod Institute founder, CEO and President Shirley Miller Sherrod said in a news release. "It will be empowering for our constituents to hear from, and bend the ear of, someone who looks like them and helps shape and execute agriculture policy at the highest level of government."

The Sherrod Institute's Ag Empowerment Summit will take place Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sherrod Institute's main campus, New Communities at Cypress Pond, 801 Old Pretoria Road in Albany. While the daylong program is free and open to the public, attendees are asked to register by emailing The Sherrod Institute at info@sherrodinstitute.org .

Funded in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, the ag summit, organized by the Institute's Charles Sherrod Community Development Corporation, will feature more than 10 faculty-led workshops that will cover myriad agricultural disciplines including irrigation, cattle beefing, livestock, vaccinations, cover crop conservation, heirs' property and succession planning, credit recovery and more.

During lunch at noon, Shirley Sherrod will introduce Cosby, who will speak on the subject of "how agriculture can empower community development and uplift." Cosby's appointment last year by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack won the early support of Sherrod. Cosby joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture nearly 45 years ago as a student trainee and has held conversation leadership posts in Iowa, Missouri, Idaho and Ohio.

A native of Tallahatchie County, Miss., he grew up on a cotton farm that was purchased in the 1800s by his great grandfather and handed down through three generations. Cosby earned a bachelor of science degree in Agricultural Education from Alcorn State University in Alcorn, Miss., the nation's first black land grant college.

The Sherrod Institute comprises several member organizations, including The Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, New Communities Inc., Resora and The Charles Sherrod Community Development Corporation.