September 2024
Every year the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) publishes their South Florida Environmental Report (SFER) detailing environmental and water projects for the past water year.
The past year was another outstanding one for farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), who adhere to and implement specific Best Management Practices (BMPs) on their farms as a critical part of Everglades Restoration.
Contrary to the rhetoric that only one crop grows in the EAA, a multitude of crops grow there including sugarcane, vegetables, fruit, sod and rice. Crop rotations are implemented on many farms as well. Additionally, South Florida crop production feeds up to 180 million Americans up and down the East Coast during the winter months, bringing huge economic impacts and tens of thousands of jobs to South Florida.
Overcoming challenges, including an El Nino winter, and adhering to one of the most strictly monitored farming areas in the country, South Florida’s farmers announced another landmark in their on-farm efforts to improve water quality. Over the past year, farmers achieved a 46% annual reduction in phosphorus, which continues to vastly exceed the 25% reduction required under the Everglades Forever Act and brings the total annual average reductions to 57% since the program began in 1996.
These reductions are not attained on accident – they are accomplished by implementing science-based BMPs that were methodically developed and intentionally implemented and include a whole host water conservation, water quality, and water resource protection practices. These BMPs are designed specifically to reduce water and nutrient use, reduce sediment loss and provide clean water to flow south out of the EAA.
In the past year, water quality monitors have registered drastic reductions in phosphorus levels from when water enters the EAA, to when it leaves.
Would like to thank the SFWMD for monitoring and reporting on this key component of Everglades Restoration and thank you to the EAA farmers who have worked relentlessly to not only ensure that these water quality goals are not only met, but far exceeded, for the benefit of all of south Florida.
And it is not just EAA Farmers, bona-fide Farmers statewide, inside and outside of BMAPs, are continuing to implement these BMPs, providing environmental benefits, reducing water and nutrient use and providing wildlife habitat and greenspace, all while delivering food security for our nations safe, abundant, and affordable food supply.
Video courtesy of Florida Sugarcane Farmers