Florida Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried holds round table in Alva

A new initiative championed by Florida’s agricultural commissioner aims to keep Southwest Florida waters clean and healthy.

Nikki Fried’s plan includes plenty of changes keeping an eye on the best practices for people who grow crops in the Sunshine State.

Fried, who is running for Florida governor against Ron DeSantis, sat down with local food producers at a roundtable at Keepsake Plants in Alva on Wednesday to discuss Florida’s environment.

“It’s important to make sure that in my world, that I was bringing people together, that I was listening to the concerns of the environmentalists out there, listening to the what is happening on the agriculture industry, and make sure that there’s a balance,” Fried said. “We have initiated changes in our best management protocols and some legislative changes from last year, I really wanted to kind of hear from them how that’s been going.”

The initiative includes collecting records of nutrient use, in-person site visits and enforcement.

Her office wants to beef up best management practices for the agricultural industry which our intended to keep water clean.

“The agriculture industry that is enrolled in the BMP program, are doing a phenomenal job,” Fried said. “They are following the science, they’re following the manuals, are following the programs. The problem is a lot of these manuals have been outdated, for some of them, over a decade.”

Bringing all of those elements together and up to speed is of vital importance for all of Southwest Florida as water impacts food, the economy and everyone’s lives.

“We’re putting these people in touch with each other so that they can kind of hear firsthand what is happening on the ground,” Fried said. 

There is also legislation proposed in the upcoming session that would address reducing greenhouse gasses and reducing the use of fertilizer.