UF/IFAS To Launch Small Farms Academy

By Growing Produce Staff|January 12, 2010

Ninety-three percent of Florida’s 47,000 farms are classified by the federal government as small farms. But those farms earn less than one-fifth of the state’s agricultural receipts, said Nick Comerford, director of the North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy.

Around the country, there is a similar split between small and large farms, he said, but nationally, small farmers are faring better than Florida’s small farmers.

Helping change that was the impetus behind the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Small Farms Academy, said Comerford, the academy’s interim director. Officials hope to officially launch the academy in April and to have a full curriculum by July 1.

The academy will be initially based at the North Florida Research and Education Center’s Suwannee Valley campus in Live Oak.

After setting up an advisory board and launching a website at http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/academy/index.shtml, Comerford said the group is soliciting input from UF faculty and interested parties about the academy and its curriculum. Those with ideas to share are asked to contact Small Farms Academy coordinator Randi Randall at 386-362-1725 x106 or [email protected].