Lake County Commissioners called the first-ever agricultural land workshop to provide solutions to maintain the county’s rich agricultural history. But instead, they listened to the challenges of producers and farmers that dozens of families were forced to sell their land for development.
“We are very specialized and labor-intensive in agriculture, so labor is our biggest challenge,” said Austin Spivey, production manager at Cherry Lake Farm, Groveland. “I think it takes one person per 5 acres per year to perform all the different tasks. There are 720 acres, so there are 143 people that have to be adopted just to produce crops.
Spivey said Cherrylake is innovative with the aim of automating and mechanizing production, but is struggling to ensure domestic work on the farm.
Cherrylake Tree Farm in Groveland relies on migrant workers with temporary H2-A visas during the farm’s busy seasons. TG Frostland and Tom Frost of the cows said there are many hands willing to work on his cow ranch, but the lack of affordable land puts a heavy burden on the business.
“To get work and make money, you need to buy about $5,000 per acre,” he said. “We obviously buy it more than that, we’ve bought it more than that, but that means it’s going to be a labor of love.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson visited the counties, giving them a greater state perspective on industry and listening to farmland concerns from farmers like Frost and Spivey.
Notifying Simpson of the specific issues raised by local farmers and growers, Commissioner Kirby Smith directly asked how to curb unnecessary development.
“You have to change the will of those local governments into one,” Simpson advised. “The second is to buy development rights in and around cities where there is no appetite to continue doing so.”
He outlined many state initiatives, including the Florida Forever and the Rural and Family Land Conservation Act.
Commissioner Anthony Sabatini proposed purchasing agricultural easements with proceeds from the $50 million Lake Forever Bond Invendum, which voters approved last November.
Several rural areas of the county, former ranches and citrus groves are currently in the process of selling and are being prepared for development.
In October, the US Canadian homebuilder GT Homes division purchased a strip of land in the Lake County Wellnessway area, which extends from the US 27 to the Orange County Line for $165 million. The land includes the former 1,769 acres of Arnold Groves and Ranch, and the adjacent 552 acres of Roper Properties that combines with the GT USA into a single masterplan community known as the Panther Run.
Last November, Taylor Morrison paid $60 million for McKinnon Globes Properties in the Wellnessway area after approving the plan for the 658 Homee Gate Community.
Earlier this year, family-owned Long Farm and Scott Farm, owners of nearly 700 acres of farmland in Zellwood’s Lake Orange County Line, are seeking the right to build a new golf community for seniors.
Long and Scott’s farms are longtime grass growers and will not completely throw away the industry, such as the Zelwood Sweet Corn trademark.
The president of Hank Scott Farm said last month that the sales decision was based on the surrounding development and the desire to hand the farm to the family decades later with business.
He plans to find a less populated area and continue the family’s farming tradition far from the fast-growing development projects in both the Lake and Orange counties.
“Well, we have the same problem as a lot of people in that traffic is pretty bad for us,” Scott said. “We are on both sides of Jones Avenue for the road, so the slow trucks across that road are very dangerous. We chose a property that is a little more country and a little easier to work with.
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