In the Midst of Challenges on the Farm, Don’t Forget the Solutions
March 30, 2020 As I started writing this editorial, it was early March. Taking a quick stroll through the news and various social media feeds, you’d get a sense that the world is on fire. Much of the concern is being focused on COVID-19 (coronavirus) — for good reason. The uncertainty surrounding the bug has roiled markets and has deeply impacted industries and people across the planet.
How far and wide COVID-19 spreads will be playing out in the months ahead. Hopefully, it is something that can be managed to some extent. But what the virus has clearly illustrated is the power of media and a global society connected to 24/7 information. It hard not to fret, when media inherently seeks ratings and online clicks constantly playing up the threat of the disease.
In the hysteria, the fact is that there are many smart and qualified professionals and scientists working to contain this contagion. Work is well underway seeking a vaccine, and protocols are being put into place to help slow the spread. In other words, this story is not just about the problem — people getting sick and some sadly dying. It also is about the solutions — amazing medical science at work to curb the impact of COVID-19 on the world.
With this challenge and the many others we have faced in the past, more times than not, we find solutions. It may not always be easy, and often takes longer than we’d like, but we find solutions.
I point to Florida Grower’s upcoming April cover story as an example. Agriculture in Florida, and globally, is being impacted by changing climate conditions that are challenging open-field agriculture. Here in Florida, there is a huge emphasis on water usage and the potential of agricultural fertilizer to pollute waterways. Vertical farms like Hardee Fresh will leave zero footprint on the environment from a nutrient standpoint, and its water usage for irrigating crops is off-the-charts efficient. You can expect to see more and more of these highly controlled environment farms.
The solutions that Hardee Farms have developed didn’t happen by accident. There was a team of very capable and smart people who took an existing concept like vertical farming and refined it and made it even better.
Agricultural labor is another major challenge facing specialty crop growers — many would argue it is the worst problem. It is plain and simple; the majority of people in the U.S. just don’t want to do this work anymore, and it is getting harder to find foreign labor. That is not going to change. But, guess what? There are an awful lot of smart people, and companies are developing robots that will soon be doing these jobs. It is a solution that is closer than you think. Because that is what people do and have done for millennia — identify problems and find solutions.
Finally, I’d like to close by paying tribute to Dick Meister, our company’s patriarch who passed away recently at the age of 100. He was a leading editorial voice here for more than 70 years. He was among the few people in our company who read every single publication from Meister every month.
I would often get an email from Dick with a tip of the hat or mild critique of things I have written here over the years. Dick was a champion for U.S. agriculture and believed that it has been and will continue to be the foundation of America’s success. He will be missed, but his legacy will carry on.
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