Agriculture

Use of technology and growing more on less land are major keys to survival for the Florida agriculture industry.

Laborers have suffered in extreme heat triggered by climate change. Deaths aren’t inevitable, and employers can save lives by providing ample water and breaks, researchers say.

Incoming Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican and citrus grower, said the conditions are worse than Hurricane Idalia, which resulted in $400 million in damage to the industry.

Preliminary findings could mean the agricultural damages from Debby were close to losses from Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 storm that roared across the same rural region nearly a year earlier.

The migrant farmworker community is one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to natural disasters. Language barriers and immigration status are major hurdles to seeking emergency relief.

Officials say water used by Bedner Growers of Boynton Beach matched a strain of the bacteria that caused some of the illnesses in more than 30 states and Washington, D.C., from late March through early June.

Many farmers have traditionally handled their own problems, whether it’s a busted tractor or debilitating anxiety. “With the older generation, it’s still, ‘Suck it up,’ " says one mental health advocate and farmer.

Federal agencies have deemed lab-grown, or cultivated, meat safe to eat. But the legislation, supported by the state’s agriculture industry, “pumps the brakes” on the food to ensure it is safe.

Chickens are more susceptible to dying after hurricanes because of how farmers have to keep them. Chickens require raised houses and need to be kept cool to survive. This means hurricane-force winds alone can take down countless chicken houses and power outages can overheat them, effectively putting local farmers out of livestock and business.

Wilton Simpson told a Tallahassee business group, "Imagine one week of no food in the grocery stores ... You’d have total chaos in this country."

Urban fertilizer application and agricultural fertilizer application are currently “being revised behind the scenes.”

Lyrianne Gonzalez in New York is looking for Florida descendants of the federal program that brought foreign workers to farms here. The guest worker program dates back decades, and usually brought foreigners to American farms for set periods of time, and then the workers went back home. But some guest workers chose to pursue legal U.S. citizenship, and then settled in Florida and other farm states.