GAP Connections (GAPC) coordinates GAP Training annually to provide growers the opportunity to learn from content experts about the latest crop, environmental, and labor best management practices. GAPC appreciates and recognizes the partnerships we have with the tobacco Extension Educators and Specialists and other content experts to best serve the growers.

In 2025, GAP Training will be available online and at a select few in-person training locations and events.

Online training will launch mid-January and can be found on the Grower Dashboard. Not sure about online training? Watch the GAPC Training and Events Page for an in-person meeting near you. 

Are you a business looking for a way to connect with tobacco growers and boost your company's visibility? 

GAPC offers an opportunity for those organizations and companies that support our mission and want to reach our membership base with potential resources and solutions to market their product.  The sponsorship helps to offset the costs associated with GAPC education, training, and resource development.

We are thrilled to offer the opportunity to partner with our current sponsors, Gripp and Yepzy, and work together to make 2025 a successful year. 

For more information about becoming a sponsor, please contact Katelyn White, GAP Connections Business Manager and Certification Coordinator, at 865.622.4606, ext. 113 or email kwhite@gapconnections.com

GAP Connections is excited to announce the launch of a new podcast "Let's Talk About Labor" that aims to address labor needs to farmers in Tennessee and other surrounding states. The podcast is a collaborative effort of University of Tennessee Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and GAP Connections

Episode 1: Let's talk about the H-2A program: Farmer's experiences with the H-2A program.

Listen here.

Episode 2: H-2A Worker Housing: Practical Things I Need to Know Before Considering the H-2A Program

Listen here.

Episode 3: H-2A Worker Transportation: Practical Things I Need to Know Before Considering the H-2A Program

Listen here.

Episode 4: H-2A Program Housing Requirements

Listen here.

Episode 5: H-2A Program Housing Inspections

Listen here.

Episode 6: Tobacco and Row Crop Growers' Experience with the H-2A Program

Listen here.

Episode 7: Tobacco and Row Crop Growers' Experience with the H-2A Worker Housing

In this episode, Jackie Edwards, co-owner of Corn Silk Farms LLC, a grain farm located in Middle Tennessee, Joey Knight, from Joey Knight Farm, a tobacco and cattle farm located in Middle Tennessee, and Dalton Armstrong, from Armstrong Tobacco Farms, a tobacco and cattle farm, will talk about their experience with providing housing for H-2A workers. Jackie will talk specifically about her unique experience employing and housing H-2A workers from different countries.

Listen here.

Join NC Cooperative Extension on Thursday, December 19th at 9:00 a.m. for a flue-cured tobacco variety webinar! This event is hosted by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Services in Johnston and Wilson Counties. The Zoom webinar will feature Dr. Ramsey Lewis, NC State Tobacco Breeder, and Dr. Matthew Vann, NC State Tobacco Agronomist. They will cover new genetics and up-to-date yield information that has been recorded from 2020 – 2024.

Registration is required. The registration link is below.

Please contact Norman Harrell (norman_harrell@ncsu.edu) or Bryant Spivey (bryant_spivey@ncsu.edu) if you have any questions.

GAPC has a partnership with Jackson Lewis to provide growers with a comprehensive risk management helpline service carefully designed to help manage workforce employment issues and reduce exposure to employment-related liability. 

This helpline is FREE to all GAPC grower members. Growers can access the helpline by phone (833) 499-0275 or email GAPConnectionsHotline@jacksonlewis.com.  When contacting the helpline, please be prepared to provide, your name, GAPC grower ID #, location, type of issue, phone, and email (if available). 

865.622.4606 | info@gapconnections.com | 2450 E.J. Chapman Drive Knoxville, TN 37996