MICHELL NORRIS, host:
These are hard times for an area known as peanut country in southwestern Georgia. Consider the town of Blakely, an agricultural town that considers peanuts and cotton as its lifeline. Blakely is home to the Peanut Corporation of America, a plant that was temporarily shut down after a recent outbreak of salmonella was traced to the factory. A majority of the factory's employees were laid off. And to add the town's woes, a newspaper production plant based there, Georgia Pacific, will lay off 100 employees. Like we said, these are tough times in Blakely.
Ric Hall has been the mayor of Blakely for five years. He's on the line with us now. Mayor Hall, what was your reaction when you found out about the closing of the peanut plant? It must have been bad news.
Mayor RIC HALL (Blakely, Georgia): Well, it was bad news, Michele. And it was one that we weren't prepared for coming on light of the announcement that they were closing one of the machines down at the Georgia Pacific Plant. So that's a total of about 150 to 170 employees who are going to have their paychecks adversely affected, if not cut off completely.
NORRIS: Now, as we said, this is considered peanut country. Just how important are peanuts to the way of life down there?
Mayor HALL: We are an agricultural community, and peanuts have been the mainstay ever since the boll weevil made his presence known back in the late '40s and people converted to peanuts as their primary cash crop. We've seen that cotton and peanuts now probably equal out at about 50-50 as far as the largest cash crop that is planted by our farms.
NORRIS: So if I were to drive in through the town of Blakely, would I see peanuts on the town's sign? And are you proud of your peanut heritage?
Mayor HALL: Actually, you would. We even have a monument on the square to the peanut.
NORRIS: What's that monument look like?
Mayor HALL: Well, it's just got a big peanut across the top of it, and the inscription on it describes the importance that peanuts played in the recovery for our farmers after the devastation caused by the boll weevil.
NORRIS: The Peanut Corporation of America is at the center of the salmonella outbreak, an outbreak that has sickened hundreds. What are you going to do to make sure that people turn back to peanut butter or peanut products at the end of this?
Mayor HALL: I'm sure for a while there'll be some people who will be cautious. But it will recover. And so many byproducts of peanuts - peanut flower and peanut oil and things of this nature - have become so important to the lives and the diets of Americans that they will come back to it. There will be a slump for a while.
NORRIS: Now I know you're a busy man, so I'm going to let you go. But I just have one last question for you. There are a lot of people in your town that are out of work right now facing hard times. What if anything can you do to help them out?
Mayor HALL: One of the most unfortunate things about being a small community is we don't have a lot of resources. And so, primarily the churches will step up. We have a food bank and we have a clothing bank. We're a very close-knit community, and I'm sure the people will reach out to assist in any way possible that we can to try to get these folks through this very tough time.
NORRIS: Mayor Hall, thank you very much for your time. All the best to you.
Mayor HALL: Thank you for your consideration of our plight.
NORRIS: That was Mayor Ric Hall. He's the mayor of Blakely, Georgia.