EAA Farmers Harvest 373 Million Ears of Sweet Corn

Sweet corn season has officially ended in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), as farmers have harvested nearly 373 million ears of locally grown sweet corn.

“We are thrilled to have had such a successful sweet corn season,” John S. Hundley, vice president of family-owned Hundley Farms and president of EAA Farmers, Inc., said in a written statement Wednesday. “EAA farmers only grow 'supersweet' varieties of sweet corn and tailor them for different markets’ unique tastes all over the nation. We are proud to provide American tables with homegrown and delicious sweet corn.”

The EAA farming basin, south of Lake Okeechobee, is one of the nation’s largest fresh-market sweet corn producers and supplies fresh products all over the United States, in Canada and across the Atlantic to Europe.  EAA farmers promote their products through Sunshine Sweet Corn Farmers of Florida.  This season, local farmers harvested more than 7.4 million boxes, each containing 50 ears, of locally grown sweet corn.  The crop is grown on nearly 25,000 acres in the EAA during the spring season, with 96 percent of it grown on farmland that rotated out of sugarcane. Crop rotation is a sustainable farming practice.

Sweet corn is an ideal crop to grow in rotation in the EAA, according to the statement.  Sweet corn allows local farmers time to plant a rice crop following it just before going back into sugarcane.  Each crop in the cycle benefits the next.

EAA Farmers, Inc. is a grassroots coalition of farmers in South Florida’s Everglades Agricultural Area.  It advocates for the protection of local farmland and on behalf of economic issues critical to the future of farming in the EAA.