There were just over 2100 jobs in the agriculture and mining sector in Lee County, by the last census numbers. OurDispatches from the Swing State project dropped in on one of the less conventional agriculture positions at the Umbuzi experimental farm in Buckingham, Florida.
At the Umbuzi farm, WLRN-Miami Herald Reporter Kenny Malone and Herald photographer Patrick Farrell met award-winning goat cheese maker Jim Ellis.
“When the strangers are around sometimes they get shy. Goat milking is, yeah, it’s a relationship between the farmer and the goat”, said Ellis. “They get to know you and we get to know them...it sounds kind of weird.”
The Umbuzi farm is owned by a wealthy mining equipment manufacturer. It started as a retreat property and Jim Ellis started as an on-site handy man. He hand-milked 5 goats for a while and eventually sold the owner on expanding to what are now more than 60 goats and automatic pumps.
Ellis has even bigger plans, but says his boss is getting squeezed by ramped up restrictions on the mining industry and potentially higher taxes on wealthy Americans.
“And it’s like well we can’t do that right now because cash flow is short”, Ellis said. “When you have mining companies going out of business and they cancel their orders the cash flow subsides. So then we can’t hire new people and do these new things and do the research and development that it takes.”
Ellis says it’s a first-hand example of how trickle-down economics would help.
He isn’t crazy about either candidate, but will be voting for Romney in November.
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