Georgia Pecan Farmers Vote In Marketing Effort

Voters across the country are choosing candidates in the presidential election. But pecan farmers in Georgia and more than a dozen other states are voting in an election of their own. It’s part of a proposal for better marketing.

You’ve heard “Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner” and “The Incredible Edible Egg.” Those slogans are made possible by something called a Federal Marketing Order.

Farmers pay an assessment. The money goes to advertising and research for new products. That’s why pecan growers want a marketing order of their own, as GPB's Bradley George reported for Marketplace last year. 

"There's a lot of people who feel like a pecan is a Southern specialty item," says Houston County farmer Thomas L. Mason.  "We got off an airplane one day and a guy asked us what we do, and we told him we grow pecans, and he said, 'What's that?'"  

Chinese demand for American-grown pecans and other tree nuts has exploded--from $77 million  in 2000 to over a billion in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But pecan farmers say better marketing will lead to more American consumers trying their product. 

Voting in the mail-in referendum begins Wednesday and wraps up March 29.