Last week our team spent time with the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association and the growers who make up one of the most important farming communities in the country. We’ve been connected to many of these growers for years, and it was good to be back in the room with them. FFVA’s gathering does two things well. It honors the next generation through its Emerging Leader Development Program, recognizing the people who will lead Florida agriculture forward. And it gives the industry a place for straight talk about where things stand and what’s coming next.
A tough year, and a hopeful one
Last year’s freeze put a lot of Florida produce growers on the ropes. Recovering from a loss like that doesn’t happen in one season, and many operations are still working their way out of it. Even so, the mood at FFVA carried real optimism. This is shaping up to be a good year, and growers are meeting it the way Florida farmers always have: by planning carefully and staying open to what’s next.
Florida feeds the country in winter
Most people don’t think about where their tomatoes and strawberries come from in January. A lot of the time, the answer is Florida. Our latitude, ample water and wide range of soil types give the state a subtropical climate where farming continues straight through the winter, while fields across most of the country sit cold or frozen. Florida’s slowest stretch is the dead of summer, during the wet season. For the other eight to nine months, growers are deep in production. That’s a longer window than almost anywhere else in the continental U.S. Only California comes close, and California is dealing with more and more water challenges of its own.
The variety is just as striking. Florida’s fruit and vegetable growers raise more than 300 crop types, covering almost everything you’d find in the produce section of your local grocery store. That gives Florida a unique role in food security. Not food safety in the regulatory sense, but the most basic sense of the word: having enough.
“Florida plays a vital role in making sure we have enough food to feed our people,” said Brian Kelley, President of AgTechnologies. “It doesn’t take but a really quick search to figure out where fruits and vegetables come from in the wintertime.”
More demand, fewer acres
Anyone who has lived here long has watched Florida change. Roads that used to run past orange groves, tomato fields and strawberry fields now run past neighborhoods and solar farms. More people means more demand for food, and growers are being asked to meet it on fewer acres. That takes a level of efficiency that wasn’t required a generation ago.
It also takes care. Farms sit closer to homes and schools than ever, and growers take seriously their responsibility to protect nearby families. Many of them live in those same neighborhoods, with their own kids just down the road. They’re committed, financially and personally, to growing quality food in the most sustainable ways available today, and they keep reaching for whatever will make them more efficient next season. Some of the most innovative work in agriculture is coming out of Florida’s fruit and vegetable operations right now.
Starting with the farm, not the technology
Technology is meant to change the way we farm and help growers farm better tomorrow than they did today. But in produce, very few people are coming alongside growers to help them save money, farm better and solve real-world problems with the right tools. And no tool helps if it doesn’t fit the operation it’s meant to serve.
That’s why we start with the farm. Brian described most of his conversations at FFVA this way: “I didn’t have conversations about technology on their farm. I had conversations about what’s going on on your farm. Tell me. And then we might find ourselves in a technology conversation.”
We have to understand how a grower farms and the space they work in, or we can’t apply what we know. When there’s a solution that fits, we help them find it, vet it and put it to work. When there isn’t, we say so. We’re here to solve, not just to sell.
Florida’s fruit and vegetable growers carry a responsibility that reaches well beyond state lines. As homes keep pressing in and demand keeps climbing, the future of Florida farming matters to every family that expects fresh produce on the table in the middle of winter. We’re proud to stand with these growers, and grateful to FFVA for bringing the industry together. Here’s to a strong season.
Want to talk through what’s happening on your operation? Contact AgTechnologies. We’d love to hear from you.
