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CNN Live Sunday

Gambling Farmers in Georgia

Aired July 29, 2001 - 16:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: You saw the drought map, and drought conditions have made gamblers of an unlikely bunch of Americans.

CNN's Brian Cabell has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether they like it or not, farmers are gamblers. They gamble on the weather, James Gaston says. Three years of drought here in the south has turned many of them into losers.

This year, Georgia's Environmental Protection Division, eager to conserve water, offered farmers a new gamble. Don't irrigate some of your farmland, the agency said, and we will pay you a certain amount per acre. The trouble was, they didn't say how much; it was a blind auction, a lottery.

Farmers had to submit bids and hope they were accepted. The agency finally took all bids below $200 per acre.

JAMES GASTON, FARMER: You are gambling, hoping it will get accepted and then hoping and praying that you get rainfall.

CABELL: James Gaston was a winner. His bid of $124 an acre not to irrigate his (UNINTELLIGIBLE) grass, grown mainly for livestock, was accepted; he gets a government check. And he has gotten good rainfall this summer so he will get money for this crop as well.

This man had his bid accepted, $180 an acre not to irrigate his peanut fields, but claims the government did not credit him with enough acres.

WILLIAM FRECHETTE, GEORGIA EPD: There were some difficulties; there were some things the farmers did not agree with, the information we had. We are working with them to make sure we are both on same page.

CABELL: Farmer Dave Will claims that he got shut out.

DAVE WILLS, FARMER: I made a lot of phone calls to Atlanta. Did not get the response that I wanted. And subsequently filed a lawsuit.

CABELL: He claims the government wrongly prevented him from bidding on two large tracts of his land. He is going to court.

Some winners, some losers, but all will be consoled if Mother Nature cooperates with more rainfall this summer.

(on camera): If state officials determine there's a drought again next year, they will conduct another lottery, and farmers will gamble again, and hope the rules will be fair and easily understood.

Brian Cabell, CNN, Preston, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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