U.S. Agriculture Secretary visits Polk County to discuss Hurricane Ian assistance

FORT MEADE - The motorcade parked along a rural stretch of road next to orange groves in Fort Meade operated by fifth-generation citrus grower Larry Black.

Black stood waiting with his wife Jenny Black among other citrus industry leaders and USDA staff for the door to open on a black SUV. He was part of a delegation anxious for the chance to talk to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

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On the horizon as the secretary approached the Blacks, a column of smoke from a burning grove of distressed citrus trees – emblematic of the state of citrus in Florida – caught the eye of Vilsack in the clear blue sky as he talked with everyone.

Black quipped that smoke from dead citrus wood improves the flavor of barbecue before explaining to Vilsack that clear cutting groves and usually burning them was more common in the time of citrus greening and hurricane damaged trees.

Vilsack used the moment to explain a “profit center” initiative for farmers, before discussing the financial assistance the USDA has for growers following Hurricane Ian.

“Let me suggest there is a possibility of figuring out ways that waste material could be used to develop sustainable aviation fuel,” Vilsack said.

He also envisioned more fruits and vegetables going to K-12 school lunches, universities, prisons and food banks as potential new revenue streams for family farmers.

Across the country, there are plans for the department to open regional food centers to help local farmers develop local revenue sources by assisting them with the development of connections with large-scale institutional food and commodity buyers. The secretary said he will be announcing those locations soon from a stack of about 30 applications for a program funded for at least the next five years.

He also wants farmers to connect with climate change entrepreneurs looking to plant trees to offset carbon emissions and possibly carbon sequestration facilities and renewable energy generation projects in rural areas. 

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Black wanted immediate assistance for the citrus industry as well as efforts to preserve the rural way of life. 

“The reason I am still doing what I am doing – our family – is this is our life that we’ve chosen,” Black said. He added many Florida farms on the outskirts of urban areas are increasingly losing their operations to development pressures for housing and shopping centers.

Turning to disaster recovery, Black said he anticipates 65% of the citrus crop he expected at the beginning of the season. In an industry with shrinking profit margins, a 35% drop in fruit yield takes a big chunk out of his profits, he said.

He had hoped the USDA would repeat the block grant program it offered in 2017 in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. But not all the news the secretary brought from the U.S. Capitol was good for Black and his industry colleagues.

Vilsack said he had good news that relief checks were being processed faster but the pot of money was considerably less than when Florida food producers were helped in 2017. He said assistance for disaster relief in the Emergency Relief Program was cut by congress from $10 billion in 2022 to $3 billion in the new budget, leaving just 30% of the funding for relief compared to the past.

The Farm Bill outlays funds four main policy priorities, including nutrition, crop insurance, commodities and conservation, with nutrition accounting for about three-fourths of the funding.

The good news was a growing amount of funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides assistance to agricultural and forest producers who want to protect natural resources as well as their operations.

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For conservation on farmlands, the EQIP program was funded at $850 million this year, $1.7 billion next year, and the funding would double again in year three. Vilsack noted that the United States loses 2,000 acres per day on average and this program would attempt to stop the losses while spreading sustainable farm practices.

At the Peace River Packing Company, Black said he has been adding energy efficient irrigation. And other industrywide projects were helping the citrus industry become more resilient and sustainable.

Black pointed to the 1,000 acres of trees now in the “citrus under protective screen” or CUPS program, which promises to produce more than double or triple the fruit per tree while reducing environmental impacts.

Growers are finding they need less water, fertilizer and pest control in CUPS groves because they can be precisely applied without the overspray and lack of absorption associated with applications in outdoor groves.

Black also said "cover crops," such as radishes, grown in the narrow strips of land between rows of trees in his outdoor groves are another sustainable farming practice that is expected to spread. The radishes help trees weakened by citrus greening by diverting bad microbes in the soil away from the citrus tree roots and toward the radishes.

Funding for EQIP comes from the USDA through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which helps landowners and producers with disaster related issues on their land, a USDA release said.

Since Hurricane Ian, the program has approved more than $10 million for more than 400 applications, the USDA said.

According to the University of Florida, the Category 4 Hurricane Ian in September caused an estimated $1.03 billion in production losses for agricultural producers in Florida.

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The citrus industry was the hardest hit crop with losses of $247.1 million, said the Feb. 9 report by UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Growers of vegetables and melons suffered losses of $204.6 million, and nursery and greenhouse industry losses were $195.4 million, said UF/IFAS. Damage to buildings and equipment will likely increase economic losses further.

According to the USDA, the agency has been processing nearly 2,500 requests for assistance following Hurricane Ian and has held more than 16 outreach events to help producers get the assistance they need.

In other relief programs, the Farm Service Agency has authorized policy exceptions for three key disaster assistance programs to aid Florida agricultural operations that were significantly impacted by Ian, the release said. These programs include the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, Farm-Raised Fish Program, Livestock Indemnity Program and Tree Assistance Program.

The grove visit was the first stop in Central Florida for the secretary and part of a full afternoon of dialog with food and commodity producers with operations in distress.

At Florida Citrus Mutual in Bartow, Vilsack sat for a roundtable with trade association leaders whose members had all suffered pests, freezes and hurricane losses.

There were leaders from nurseries, timber operations, vegetable and specialty crop growers, and cattlemen, among many others with a seat at the table to represent its members who feed people across the country and globally as well as adding to economic progress.

Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: U.S. Agriculture Secretary visits Polk County to discuss Ian assistance