L. Sidney Law

2002 D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Public Service Extension

Mr. L. Sidney Law has been a Cooperative Extension Faculty Member in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for the past 19 years. For the past 15 years, Mr. Law has provided outstanding Extension leadership 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, Mr. Law has distinguished himself as an outstanding leader of agricultural projects, events, activities and educational efforts.

Mr. Law's educational efforts have focused on Alternative Enterprises/Agricultural Diversity, Agricultural Profitability, Agricultural Awareness, Conservation of Natural Resources, Rural Leadership and Rural Health Care. These six issues were designated by the Washington County Extension Agricultural and Natural Resources Advisory Committee as the most critical for the county. In managing these proactive issues as well as reactive issues, Mr. Law has averaged 550 office consultations, 3,100 telephone consultations, and almost 1,600 farm/home consultations per year. He has taught, facilitated and/or assisted in 695 educational events in the past six years. These educational events included 60 regional or national professional presentations and 25 professional exhibits. These efforts are bolstered by an extended list of on-farm commodity research projects.

Realizing the seriousness of the recent decline of agricultural economics, Mr. Law launched an educational effort called Positioning Agriculture for Regional Economic Advantages (PAREA) for farmers, ranchers and agribusiness leaders in a five-county area to pool resources and energies in developing alternative and/or value-added agricultural enterprises. One project led to the promising development of a commercial meat goat enterprise. This newly developed enterprise has recently advanced to a higher level of economic potential with the establishment of a goat processing and marketing cooperative, the first New Generation Cooperative of its kind in Georgia.

Recognizing the need for farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses to unite to have prominent impact on agricultural issues, Mr. Law initiated an educational effort which led to the GA-Ag Farmers Needs Committee composed of individuals within a seven-county area. This committee focused their efforts into shaping legislation affecting national, state and local agricultural policies.