Location: Plant City, FL
Experience: Awesome!
There has been dramatic change of how we grow our crops over time. The mechanisms, chemicals and technologies that we use are always changing. It is now becoming more common that people are trying to have organic gardens, which cut back the use of pesticides. Without the use of pesticides the overall costs are cut back and the crops produced are better for people in a healthy manner … all of the hormones in food today is just ridiculous!
The goals we hope to reach through sustainable agriculture are very important. To satisfy the needs of the community as to how much food we have on our table especially related to fiber is one. Another would be to make the most of the non-renewable resources we have at hand. Water techniques (discussed in following question) is a main key to ensure the capability to use water later on. Supporting the economic power of farm operations. Also, most importantly, prolonging life of farmers and the human race as a whole.
Money is an all time inevitable problem. The United States farmers are pretty well off, but not in other countries where poverty soars. This ties into being able to manage crops in order for them to flourish and then for a family to make a profit by selling to farmers markets and other sources. A solution to this is to make better use of the food that is produced. This could be done by changing what food is produced aka what is suitable to grow in an area in particular; if a farmer lives in Florida don’t try to grow apples because the weather is not suited for that but grow oranges. We need to make better use of what we already have!
I went to Sizemore Farms that is a family run farm in Plant City Florida. I have learned about crops through the readings in State of the World text given by this class and am surrounded by orange groves everywhere in my town. Sizemore Farms offers strawberry and cantaloupe crops and thought it would be interesting to stop and see that instead of the usual.
Strawberry production occurs November to April and then dies out because of the heat. Cantaloupe grow in two seasons both two months long: April and May along with October to November. During the off season it is crucial to rejuvenate the soil in preparation for the next growing season to come. I came to learn that Central Florida is the best to grow in our state. Most of Florida has sandy soils but in the central region the soil is more clay and peat based providing more abundant harvests.
I very much liked Sizemore Farms because they pride themselves on the product quality of their food along with safety of their food meaning they try to be as organic and natural as possible!
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