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Gene McAvoy Retires After 22 Years as an Agricultural Extension Agent

Gene McAvoy discusses the importance of agriculture in Florida with participants on the Hendry County City Farm Tour.

The Hendry County Cooperative Extension is a partnership between the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences or IFAS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Hendry County Government.

The concept of Agricultural Extension has been around for more than a century, after Congress established the service in 1914 as a means of disseminating research coming out of land-grant universities like the University of Florida.

The transfer, or extension, of research knowledge is facilitated by faculty in each of Florida's 67 counties and education centers. Our guest today as worked as an extension agent in Hendry County for more than two decades. Gene McAvoy’s exact title is County Extension Director, Regional Vegetable/Horticulture Extension Agent IV.

But, that’s soon to change because he is retiring at the end of this month. So, we decided to bring him into the studio to pick his brain about his life in the agriculture industry, and what lies ahead for him.