By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia
Washington County Extension Service Agent Sidney Law received the
prestigious D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in County
Extension Oct. 1 in Athens, Ga.
Law has been an extension agent in the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for the 19
years, spending the past 15 of those years in Washington
County.
Due to its size and diverse agriculture, Washington County
demands a broad spectrum of educational programming. In
fulfilling the county’s educational needs, Law has distinguished
himself as a leader of farm projects, events, activities and
educational efforts.
His educational efforts have focused on alternative enterprises,
agricultural diversity, farm profitability, agricultural
awareness, conservation of natural resources, rural leadership
and rural health care. In managing these issues, Law has averaged
550 office consultations, 3,100 telephone consultations and
almost 1,600 farm or home visits per year.
Busy educator
He has taught, led or helped teach in 695 educational events in
the past six years. These events included 60 regional or national
presentations and 25 exhibits. His efforts are bolstered by a
long list of on-farm commodity research projects.
Law launched an educational effort called Positioning Agriculture
for Regional Economic Advantages. PAREA enabled farmers, ranchers
and agribusiness leaders in five counties to pool resources in
developing alternative and value-added enterprises.
One project led to a promising commercial meat goat business.
This new enterprise has now established a goat processing and
marketing cooperative, the first of its kind in Georgia.
Recognizing the need for farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses to
unite to have a stronger impact on farm issues, Law began an
educational effort which led to the GA-Ag Farmers Needs
Committee, composed of people in a seven-county area. This
committee focused their efforts on shaping legislation affecting
national, state and local agricultural policies.
Other winners
Other honorees this year were Daniel Fletcher, research; Robert
Shewfelt, teaching; Gerritt Hoogenboom, international
agriculture; and John Baldwin, extension.
The teaching award was the first of the D.W. Brooks awards to be
given. It was established in 1981 to recognize faculty members
who make outstanding contributions and maintain excellence in the
CAES teaching program.
In 1983, the awards were expanded to include research, extension
and county extension programs. An award for international
agriculture was added in 1988 and is given in even-numbered
years.
The awards include a framed certificate and a $5,000 cash
award.
Brooks lecture
Before the awards ceremony, Seth Carus, senior research professor
in the Center for Counterproliferation Research at the National
Defense University, delivered the 2002 D.W. Brooks Lecture,
“Bioterrorism, Homeland Security and the Food Supply.”
The lecture and awards are named for the late D.W. Brooks,
founder and chairman emeritus of Gold Kist, Inc.
Brooks was an advisor on agriculture and trade issues to seven
U.S. presidents. He started Cotton States Mutual Insurance
Companies in 1941 to provide farmers insurance.
His many honors for contributions to global agriculture included
being the first inductee into the UGA Agricultural Hall of Fame.
He received the distinguished agribusiness award from the Georgia
Agribusiness Council and was named Progressive Farmer magazine’s
“man of the year in agriculture in the South.”
The CAES sponsors the annual lecture series in his memory.
