Opinion: Tradition Of Innovation Reaches Across All Ag

In introducing myself as the new editor of Florida Grower magazine, I’d like to express my thanks for the warm welcome I’ve received from the state’s ag industry members who I have had the opportunity to meet so far. I am excited to be taking over the reins of a magazine whose goal is working toward the common good of the state’s citrus and vegetable industry.

For those of you I’ve yet to meet, I look forward to the occasion to discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. High among the challenges are canker, greening, labor, insurance, water, and the list goes on. You can rest assured that we will turn over every stone in our commitment to providing you information on innovative solutions to the challenges of the day. While we face the challenges, we too will celebrate successes, as we tell the story of Florida agriculture.

Common Factors

I come to Florida Grower with a background in the cotton industry. In fact, I served as editor of Meister Media Worldwide publications Cotton Grower and Cotton International Magazine for a number of years before spending a short stint in the public relations world. For some folks, editorial work gets in the blood. I am one of those people and was excited to join the team in Florida to begin reporting of the state’s ag industry.

While there are clearly differences between the cotton production I covered in my earlier work and citrus and vegetable production, there are common traits that I’ve observed among growers of all stripes. They have a fierce independence, love of the land, and pride taken in raising a crop that will feed and clothe the world.

As I have begun to study the ag industry here, I can relate that cotton growers have their share of challenges as well. When I hear citrus growers’ concerns about greening and canker, I take heart and hope in a comparison I draw from my past experience with cotton. For many years, the evil boll weevil attacked U.S. cotton fields, decimating yields or at the very least the profitability of growers. But in 1978, the Boll Weevil Eradication (BWE) program was established on a trial basis. Within the first few years, dramatic positive results were being seen, and today in most parts of the Cotton Belt, the weevil is a thing of the past.

I am not suggesting that problems like greening and canker will be solved in the same fashion as the boll weevil. However, like the BWE program, U.S. agriculture has a history of innovation and pulling together to overcome challenges and seize new successes. From what I know about growers, I expect that tradition will continue. We will be here to tell you the story as it unfolds.