As native Floridians, we have observed thousands of acres of agricultural lands destroyed by way of development, disease, population explosion, and increased land value. But there is a way to help make agricultural lands more affordable. The Florida Greenbelt law, enacted in 1959, gives the owner of agricultural lands a property tax break for conducting [...]
After years of negotiations between the Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA) and the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, the brand-new Nursery Value Select (NVS) Pilot policy is ready to launch. The new policy will be offered in many Florida counties this spring. It is imperative that you contact your crop insurance agent immediately regarding [...]
The future of Florida’s agriculture industry is being secured and shaped in universities throughout the state. At Martin Law Office, we know the value of education, and we feel it’s important to give Florida’s men and women the tools they need to make a change, and to make that change count. That’s why we made [...]
Each year around April the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) awards the prestigious Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award to three agriculture operations that stand out for their demonstration of “a sustained commitment to conserving Florida’s natural resources and improving our environment.” Florida ag has long known that it holds a stewardship role for the unique environments [...]
Water conservation is an important topic in Florida, and there are many in The Sunshine State who could be doing more to help conserve water. However, one of the most promising groups for water conservation targeting may be those who already conserve water in some measure, but who could stand to improve. According to a [...]
“I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree…” So goes the first two lines of poet Joyce Kilmer’s 1914 poem “Trees,” an homage that could be the official verse of Arbor Day. Originally set aside to encourage the planting of trees in the 1800s—a practice that is as old as civilization [...]
The United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, is a household name in the U.S., though this large department of the government is best known for their work in the agriculture setting, but the reality is that the USDA does so much more. In addition to agrarian efforts, overseeing nutrition in public settings and administering [...]
You’d have to have been living under a rock the past few years not to understand that the Earth needs our help. From Global Climate Change and greenhouse gases to plastics in the ocean and animal species on the brink of extinction, we should all be ‘going green’ and changing our ways, or we will [...]
Cover crops have grown quickly in esteem in the agriculture industry, and for good reason: they offer a lot of advantages on the farm and the ranch both. While cover crops have many benefits, like most things in agriculture, they do take some time and effort to reap all the rewards they offer. […]
The agriculture industry is an enterprise of innovation, and few innovations are quite as welcome as those that are good for the environment and will save producers money at the same time. Such is the case of a web-based monitoring system developed by the University of Florida’s Institute for Food and Agriculture Studies, known as [...]
