Florida Agriculture Industry

Florida lawmakers are reviewing the most controversial environmental bill to arise during the current legislative session. SB 2508 is the latest attempt by lawmakers sympathetic - or beholden - to the sugar industry to give it and the agricultural industry the key to the Everglades’ huge spigot by guaranteeing “existing legal users” continue to receive a huge amount of the water.

Despite some frost and overnight temperatures as low as 27 degrees in some pockets of Southwest Florida last weekend, Florida’s vegetable and citrus industries are reporting minimal damage.

Researchers with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences are trying to reduce pests and diseases for Florida’s $300 million-a-year strawberry industry.

We are all connected by the environment we share. The Earth is our home. This is the space where we share the environmental stories that caught our attention this week, in Florida and beyond.

Today Governor DeSantis signed the right to farm bill, which passed with overwhelming support in the legislature. Critics, such as the Sierra Club Florida, call it the “right to harm” bill while supporters say the bill is needed to protect agricultural operations.

Republican United States congressman Mario Diaz-Balart was in LaBelle Tuesday to meet with people in the agriculture industry about a bill he is…