Opinion: Farming brings high-tech jobs, global competitiveness to Collier County
Some of the county’s highest-tech jobs are on a farm in Immokalee. Scientists fly drones to look for weeds, use artificial intelligence to distinguish beneficial bugs from those that destroy crops, and look inside the guts of pests for clues on how they could be disabled with food.
Developing the food of the future here is good for Naples. When you can buy local produce, your money stays here and fuels the local economy. Farms provide much of Collier County’s green space. A tomato grown in Immokalee doesn’t carry the hidden cost of carbon miles that a Mexican tomato does.
Farmers face stiff competition from imports produced with cheap labor and government subsidies. Home-grown science evens the playing (and growing) field for Southwest Florida farmers.
The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) needs to attract the best scientists to keep pace. That’s why a groundbreaking for a new graduate student residence at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) in Immokalee means a lot more than the eight dorm rooms it will house.
Graduate students supervised by faculty do much of the data collection and field observation that inform discoveries.
These aspiring Ph.Ds. come from all over the world, drop into an isolated area all alone, don’t have cars, and can’t afford the rent off campus.
Their arrival can be delayed by months as they wait until a bed is open in Immokalee. Housing them “on campus” in Immokalee turns their commute time into research time.
Farmers are in a constant race against disease, imports, pests, and nasty weather. We can ill afford to hold up science (and the local economy) because we can’t afford a bed.
Farmers can’t wait. Some, like Aaron Troyer, whose potato farm in Lee and Collier counties is one of the largest in the Southeast United States, have paid much of the cost for the graduate student residence. Troyer sees attracting talent as essential to his industry’s success.
These growers have also paid tribute to the value of science by supporting the naming of the bungalow for a scientist who worked for decades in Immokalee before his death last year. The Philip A. Stansly Graduate Student Residence is named for an entomologist known as the “psyllid slayer” for his work on a pest that carries a disease that has devastated the citrus industry.
The upside of international markets is that they make more talent available. That doesn’t benefit Southwest Florida unless we can attract that talent to help us produce the food that allows us to take advantage of another benefit of international markets — export opportunities. Even with the challenges of unfair trade, this region remains a world leader in the production of tomatoes, citrus, and vegetables.
Agriculture employs 5,000 people in Collier County. That quickly expands to 40,000 if you include food and natural resources businesses such as landscaping, restaurants, grocery stores, golf courses and other businesses that rely on the products that come off our farms.
It’s big business for the county, accounting for $3.2 billion in annual sales. Compare that to the $145 million budget of Collier County, and you can see the outsized contribution from farms to the local economy.
You can do things to help Florida farmers. Demand fair trade. Buy local. Support public science. Participate in a farm tour. Attend an event at our research center in Immokalee to better understand how your food is produced.
Your support for public science advances discoveries that determine what kind of food you’ll be eating in the future, how it’s produced, and how to grow it locally. It keeps more of Collier County green, countering the economic forces that tip it toward transforming from fields to parking lots. As our population grows, so must our capacity to feed them all.
Jack Payne is the University of Florida’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.