Landowners in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) released a statement Monday saying emphatically they are not willing sellers of their private property to the government under Senate Bill 10.
Owners of more than 2,500 acres of farmland in the region will deliver a letter to the Legislature stating they do not support any government acquisition of additional farmlands south of Lake Okeechobee to “solve” issues being caused north of Lake Okeechobee and in Martin County, according to EAA Farmers, Inc., an organization made up of a coalition of farmers and supporters of the farming community in the Everglades Agricultural Area.
“We are not willing sellers,” said John L. Hundley, chairman of the Board of Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. “Taking our farmlands out of production to pursue a plan that is not science-based will not fix the problems in the coastal estuaries. Instead, taking fertile farmland will punish the thousands of hard-working farm families and farming businesses in our rural Everglades Agricultural Area.”
Taking additional farmland and putting it in government ownership will only serve to decrease domestic food production and kill jobs, EAA Farmers, Inc. stresses. "In fact, experts who have studied South Florida’s complex water issues agree that taking additional farmland in the EAA will not solve the coastal communities’ water challenges," says the statement.
Science shows the EAA is not the cause of the algae blooms that occurred in South Florida's coastal estuaries. Studies have determined that high levels of nutrients from local sources, including aging septic systems in the coastal communities are the primary cause of harmful algal blooms.
“The proposed legislation is a bad deal for everyone,” said Keith Wedgworth, of Wedgworth Farms and EAA Farmers, Inc. “This bill has the potential to shut down at least two vegetable packinghouses and close another sugar mill in our farming region with no benefit to the coastal estuaries.
"Eliminating more farmland with the nation’s most productive soils will hurt our local food supply and make us more reliant on imported food from foreign countries. This is not a plan in the best interest of the families in Florida and across the nation who rely on steady food supplies from American farmers they can trust. Sadly, this is just another anti-farmer, anti-jobs bill,” Wedgworth concluded.
Farmers south of Lake Okeechobee point to the more than 120,000 acres of productive farmland they've lost to the government over the last two decades.
EAA Farmers, Inc. says, "To make things worse, this job-killing bill is based on political science not real science. It is a distraction from the carefully synchronized, system-wide suite of environmental projects that will make real progress in solving the problems in the coastal estuaries. The funding and completion of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) are vital for making real progress, including the implementation of restoration projects north of Lake Okeechobee that will capture, store, and treat dirty water before it pollutes the Lake."
It's only funding that holds up these approved federal and state projects -- and they are the real solution to curbing discharges from Lake Okeechobee, the farmers group claims.
EAA Farmers say they're proud of their track record of supporting science-based plans developed in a public process in collaboration with all stakeholders at all levels of government like CERP, CEPP, the Everglades Forever Act and Restoration Strategies.
"EAA Farmers will continue to advocate for plans that will show real results for Florida’s environment," the group says.
