Cultivating Tomorrow: Madison County Farm Bureau President Richard Terry June 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter Madison County Farm Bureau President Richard Terry, left, presented the “George Townsend Good Neighbor Award” to Mrs. Deloris Jones at the Madison County Farm Bureau’s Annual Meeting in 2018. Richard Terry is a Madison County, FL native who has spent his life devoted [...]

New Citrus Family Harvests First Hemp Crop June 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter By Phil Attinger, Staff Writer for midfloridanewspapers.com  Two families gathered a week ago to harvest a small crop from a greenhouse, one with potential to be worth a couple of billion dollars in the next couple of years. It’s a crop that Jeff Williams [...]

Scientists Pluck Insects Out of the Sky for Research June 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter A suction trap (center) with several agricultural engineering students with the University of Chicago at Urbana-Champaign. (Photo by Doris Lagos-Kutz, ARS) Glen Hartman and Doris Lagos-Kutz, two scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), are hard at work keeping nuisance insects out [...]

Recent Survey Finds Farming at Top of Important Florida Industries June 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter A recent survey, commissioned by Florida Ag Coalition, found that a sweeping 98% of Floridians consider farming and ranching important. This survey was conducted among registered voters across the state. The consumer’s trust in Florida agriculture is stronger than ever before. [...]

Virtual Hill to the Field Encourages Local Advocacy May 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter Due to the pandemic and strictly regulated travel, the annual Field to the Hill advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. will not take place this year. Instead, Florida Farm Bureau has planned a Hill to the Field Advocacy Week beginning June 1, 2021. The [...]

USDA Listening Session for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers May 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter On Thursday, May 6 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. EST, FSA and AMS will be hosting a virtual listening session with beginning farmers and ranchers to hear how Covid-19 has impacted their farming operations—from market disruptions to supply chain issues. Beginning farmers and [...]

Artificial Intelligence Could Use Images from Smartphones to Detect Pests Destroying Strawberries in Florida May 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter Scientists at the University of Florida developed an app for smartphones that will use images to locate the twospotted spider mite, a pest that potentially ruins strawberry production in Florida. Dr. Daniel Lee, the researcher leading this [...]

Cultivating Tomorrow: Alachua County Farm Bureau President Richard Feagle May 2021 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter Richard Feagle was elected as president of Alachua County Farm Bureau in January of this year after nearly a decade of serving on the county’s board of directors. Feagle grew up jointly in Crystal River and Archer with his parents, he spent [...]