In a perplexing move that has mostly remained under the radar of the nation’s major media outlets, President Barack Obama signed an executive order last Tuesday that would, in effect, grant the United States government the ability to seize hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land across the South Eastern United States. Citing the extremely fertile and sustainable acreage of fields that have been sowed and harvested for generations in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi, the vague law mentions “re-purposing for the greater good of the general citizenry” as its only explanation.
The inexplicable and unprecedented seizure of private land has left most South Georgia farmers baffled and afraid. And, because there has been no clear explanation of the annexation’s purpose, Worth County farmers have no choice but to wonder if there will be any compensation, or if their family farms will be among those chosen, or what they will do once the executive order is carried out.
While most Worth residents seem to be staunchly opposed to such an obvious trespass of our constitutional and God given rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” some feel that the measure may be necessary to ensure our safety and prosperity for future generations. Scooterville farmer Gerald Jones is among those who appear to accept this imminent encroachment. Jones is a third generation Worth farmer who grows peanuts, corn, and cotton on the land that his grandfather began tilling nearly a century ago. According to the local farmer,
“I don’t want to lose my farm. My daddy and my granddaddy both grew up on this property. But, if it will truly help people, and I don’t have a choice anyway, I guess that I’ll have to let it go.”
Without any clear outline for the purpose of the decision, speculation is running rampant among those who fear their land will be chosen and re-purposed. Many seem to think the government will set up federal farms, allowing immigrant labor to produce the food at a much lower cost. Meanwhile conspiracy theorists have concocted much more sinister ideas of what the land may be used for including internment camps for those who oppose a series of similar initiatives on the table in Washington.
As for the President himself, Obama has only made one recorded statement concerning the annexation of South Georgia’s farmland,
“Happy April Fool’s Day from the Sylvester Local News.”
