Georgia Share Croppers: "Never Too Old to Learn New Tricks"

Abstract

The traditional food habits of landless cotton farmers can be changed. In Greene County, Georgia,3 as is the case throughout the cotton plantation areas of the South, most of the tenant families have had a diet made up largely of fat-back meat, corn meal, and sorghum molasses. Since 1939, over 500 low-income farm families in Greene County have been led to produce most, or all, of their bread and meat at home, develop good gardens, and can an average of nearly 100 quarts of fruits and vegetables and meats per person per year.