1 00:00:00,001 --> 00:00:08,560 Bethany Harris: Lanie Riner is Executive Director of the Georgia Green Industry Association and co-owner of Thunderwood Farms, a commercial greenhouse in Woodbury. 2 00:00:08,260 --> 00:00:17,620 Bethany Harris: A longtime champion of Georgia's green industry, she leads professional certification and education efforts and partners closely with the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture. 3 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:26,880 Bethany Harris: A graduate of UGA's Advancing Georgia's Leaders in Agriculture and Forestry program, she's thrilled to help welcome you this morning and share more about GGIA. 4 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:28,760 Lanie Riner: Good morning everyone. 5 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:30,040 Lanie Riner: Thank you for being here. 6 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:35,080 Lanie Riner: I'm really excited about this second Cut Flower Symposium. 7 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,600 Lanie Riner: This is an area for GGIA that we are 8 00:00:39,220 --> 00:00:41,300 Lanie Riner: beginning to engage in and again. 9 00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:43,540 Lanie Riner: Anyway, my name is Lanie Riner. 10 00:00:43,540 --> 00:00:49,220 Lanie Riner: I am the Executive Director and I'm going to tell you just a little bit about GGIA before we get started. 11 00:00:49,460 --> 00:00:54,820 Lanie Riner: GGIA is our state trade association for ornamental and environmental horticulture. 12 00:00:54,820 --> 00:00:57,379 Lanie Riner: We have a broad scope of 13 00:00:58,380 --> 00:01:06,220 Lanie Riner: membership for this sector including wholesale growers, greenhouse growers, retail, 14 00:01:06,140 --> 00:01:13,980 Lanie Riner: landscape firms, irrigation suppliers, allied businesses, public gardens, cut flower producers, and educators. 15 00:01:13,980 --> 00:01:15,180 Lanie Riner: And we've been around since 16 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:17,560 Lanie Riner: 1990. 17 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,960 Lanie Riner: We were formed then as a merger between landscape professionals. 18 00:01:21,960 --> 00:01:30,280 Lanie Riner: But as GGIA, what we do, we do advocacy for the industry, and that comes in a lot of different forms from 19 00:01:30,740 --> 00:01:44,180 Lanie Riner: public policy engagement at state, local, and federal levels, to regulatory efforts, to helping with things like this, whether that's student development at 4-H or FFA 20 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:51,560 Lanie Riner: or education for the industry through programs like GCPP, Cut Flower Symposium, or GCLP. 21 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,439 Lanie Riner: We just try to make sure that our industry is 22 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:59,960 Lanie Riner: up to date on all of the latest information and has access to those things. 23 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:03,080 Lanie Riner: I mentioned that we do serve cut flower growers. 24 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:04,280 Lanie Riner: I know a lot of the 25 00:02:04,540 --> 00:02:13,500 Lanie Riner: a lot of y'all may not know a whole lot about us, but in 2005, the Georgia Flower Growers Association actually merged into GGIA 26 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:16,640 Lanie Riner: to become the floriculture division of GGIA. 27 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:25,760 Lanie Riner: And then, of course, as many of you may know, a lot of our cut flower growers across the state did go out of business during that drought of 2007. 28 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:26,720 Lanie Riner: But we are 29 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:37,840 Lanie Riner: so excited about the reemergence of this industry and the number of new growers in this area. And we are excited to partner with y'all. 30 00:02:37,740 --> 00:02:46,300 Lanie Riner: Many of the shared concerns that we have, labor, water, regulatory efforts, plant health, liability, weather, 31 00:02:46,620 --> 00:02:49,020 Lanie Riner: business growth, all of those things. 32 00:02:49,020 --> 00:02:55,900 Lanie Riner: GGIA works on those things now, and we work on those things for our entire industry. 33 00:02:55,940 --> 00:02:59,220 Lanie Riner: I did want to just put in a plug for membership while I was here. 34 00:02:59,220 --> 00:03:00,340 Lanie Riner: Shameless plug. 35 00:03:00,340 --> 00:03:05,780 Lanie Riner: If you are a flower grower, you fall into any of those divisions, you are absolutely welcome to join us. 36 00:03:05,780 --> 00:03:07,459 Lanie Riner: We would love to have you. 37 00:03:07,640 --> 00:03:19,239 Lanie Riner: Many of those regulatory efforts that we talked about, those are practical benefits of membership and, of course, education and our big Southeast Green Conference and Trade Show, which happens each June. 38 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:24,960 Lanie Riner: Rich, did you have that link that you could maybe put in the chat box for everyone? 39 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:33,760 Lanie Riner: It's just got a link to our website and my email address in case there's anything that I could help you with. I would hope you please reach out. 40 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:37,360 Lanie Riner: Again, I just wanted to thank you all for investing your time in this symposium. 41 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:40,480 Lanie Riner: I think it's a great opportunity. 42 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:45,760 Lanie Riner: I'm so grateful for the Center for Urban Agriculture for pulling this together. Extension, 43 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,120 Lanie Riner: everyone who's had a part in this. 44 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,760 Lanie Riner: This is just fantastic to see education in this area again. 45 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,319 Lanie Riner: So we want to be helpful where we can. 46 00:03:54,319 --> 00:03:57,599 Lanie Riner: We hope you reach out and thank you for being here today. 47 00:03:57,599 --> 00:03:59,840 Lanie Riner: Bethany, I'll give it back to you. 48 00:03:59,740 --> 00:04:00,140 Bethany Harris: Perfect. 49 00:04:00,460 --> 00:04:00,780 Bethany Harris: Perfect. 50 00:04:00,780 --> 00:04:06,300 Bethany Harris: And we have dropped in the website that she shared as well as her email.