Then you haven’t seen a lot of Florida. Northern Florida is one of the largest producers of pulp for paper. While this isn’t a consumable in the way a vegetable or fruit is, it’s agriculture.
The area around Tampa, specifically Plant City, is the largest domestic growing area for strawberries. Buy a quart of berries in your grocery store about now and they’re probably from Florida. The production of blueberries in this area is reaching significant proportions as well. Immediately south and east of Tampa is a huge area of tomatoes and cucumbers, so much so there are processing plants that sit idle most of the year to handle the harvest. Farther south in the Bradenton and Sarasota area is one of the largest citrus operations, as well as to the east in Lakeland. The rest of the state is mostly left to cattle ranching, horse farms and citrus. Florida has very strict laws regarding the use and sale of fertilizers, including sales to consumers. They’re only available for use during certain times of the year and are highly regulated. You won’t find commercial applicators breaking these laws, as they’re quite strict and involve serious fines and even jail time under certain circumstances. Consumers can be cited and fined as well, and the state is quite aggressive about it. You own a single family dwelling but buy five 40 pound bags of fertilizer? Expect a visit or letter from the state. They don’t screw around. My son has four different state issued certifications and licenses he has to maintain to be able to purchase, handle and apply fertilizers and herbicides in the state. He gets spot checked by a state inspector randomly, and if it's determined that he misapplied something not only does he get busted, but his employer as well (one of which is a golf course.) -D > On Mar 9, 2020, at 8:04 AM, Curley McLain via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > I call a Doomburg on that! Except for a few veg grown around Homestead, > (and that is horticulture) I have not seen much "Agriculture" in FL. I'g > guess way more "Fertilizer" is overfertilized on FL lawns by condo assn.s, > homeowners, theme parks, and golf courses than any "overfertilization" by > "agriculture." Is Jose the condo lawn guy using precision ag to apply > fertilizer to the lawn? Is jose the lawn guy using precision ag to apply > fertilizer to the lawn? Is Joe homeowner using precision ag to apply > fertilizer on his lawn? Is jose the groundskeeper at the golf course or > theme park using precision ag to apply fertilizer? In each case, I think > NOT! > > Tell me why the hell would one of the few remaining farmers put apply a > higher rate of his most expensive input than what is needed? > > The golf courses and theme parks, hotels, and joe homeowner all want to have > the greenest lawn possible to attract touristas or to beat their neighbor. > The cost of fertilizer is a minor cost to them. > What is the percentage of NON-ag landowners in FL compared to the percentage > of ag landowners? Nationwide farmers are a fraction over 1%. (and that is > counting hobby farmers) In FL, if I had to guess, ag landowners would be > less than 1%. > > Now tell me again. WHO is overfertilizing in FL? > >> Peter Frederick via Mercedes <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com> >> March 9, 2020 at 6:16 AM >> Agriculture is a large part of the issue, especially in terms of phosphate >> contamination from over fertilization. >> > ... > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
