Not sure where in Florida you are but I know here in St. Lucie there is concern about run off into the Indian River Lagoon. Not only from agriculture but from sources such as golf courses. I know Ag is not the all time villain some point it to be and most farmers and ranchers take excellent care to protect the environment.
It is a problem that people don’t get the difference between using a weed killer to pretty up a yard and using it to protect an essential food crop (for people or livestock). Ignorance about the day to day operation of a cattle ranch and other ag operations doesn’t help.
Not sure where you are in Florida but you should check out Florida Farm Bureau’s “Young Farmer and Ranchers” program. A close friend of my son’s is very active in it here in St. Lucie County. They are doing a lot to support agriculture here in Florida.
My next door neighbor has a 700-cow commercial dairy operation. He's had to put gates up to keep the activists from just driving right into the middle of his property. Installed big signs at the two entrances that say authorized personnel only, no trespassing.
The activists will show up around the perimeter of his place taking pictures and trying to find evidence of animal abuse. They give these stories to the newspaper to run. A cow dies in a field, the activist take a photo which runs in the newspaper saying the dairy leaves dead animals laying around on the ground.
Well, that's not true but it does hurt his reputation and business. He said I sell milk. That's my product. These people think I'm in the animal abuse business. Just a hint that there is something wrong and I can be shut down or at the very least, lose money. But as he says, "It's hard to fight someone who buys ink by the truckload."
We haven't had much trouble from the activists so far because we're small (24 head of beef cattle) and are retired, so we keep low-key. But we've had a couple of run-ins in 6 years with the tree huggers about our on-again-off-again creek that runs across our south pasture. They wanted us to pay for water testing to see if the cattle manure was contaminating the water. The actual ditch where the creek is is fenced off from the rest of the pasture so the cows can't actually get down in the creek but that didn't stop the libs. We told them twice to take a hike. They seem to have lost interest lately.
Thanks for the advice on the "young" farmers program. But I'm 70 and my wife is right behind me, so I think we'll pass. :-)
Correct me if I am wrong, but the run off issue is primarily about phosphate in the fertilizer.
Not Round Up.
Pinellas County in Florida bans fertilizer that contains phosphate and Nitrogen June 1 though Sept 30.