The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences — or IFAS — was formed in 1964. Today, UF/IFAS has extension offices in all 67 counties in Florida, as well as 12 Research and Education Centers with a total of 20 locations — including demonstration sites — throughout Florida.
While UF/IFAS is probably most often associated with ‘growers and farmers and issues around agricultural’ their work goes far beyond that, including helping individuals and businesses, as well as growers, before, during, and after natural disasters like Hurricane Ian. We sit down with David Outerbridge, director of the UF/IFAS Extension office in Lee County to talk about the work they’re still doing helping people recover from Ian’s landfall last September. Click here to download the UF/IFAS Extension Disaster Handbook.
We also check in with Asmaa Odeh, Project Director for the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council to learn about SWFL Fresh: Choose Local, Choose Fresh. It's a marketing effort that began after Hurricane Irma in 2017 that works to raise awareness about locally-produced products and help people make and maintain connections with local farmers to source locally-produced things like meat, fish, eggs, mushrooms and more.
You can hear Asmaa's full conversation with WGCU's Tara Calligan below.
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