Residents in southwest Florida strongly support agriculture but say their opinions would improve if farmers provided more information about what they do, according to a recent survey by the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education.
Working with agricultural industry leaders in the five-county region, PIE Center researchers found that 94 percent of survey respondents believe the agricultural industry was important to the region. Further, 82 percent of respondents said they had a positive outlook on agriculture and 87 percent feel the industry is “good.”
PIE Center Director Tracy Irani said the results reflect similar feelings across the state.
“We see this type of response somewhat regularly but what surprised me was the thirst people have for more information about the process behind growing and raising crops,” she said. “This shows me that people are invested in agriculture and looking for ways to continue to support agriculture at the local or regional level.”
Respondents in Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties were asked about their perceptions of local agriculture, including the environmental and economic impacts of the industry. The online survey also asked about the residents’ communication and shopping preferences, as well as which types of marketing messages they preferred.
In terms of environmental impacts, 62 percent of respondents believe that farmers in southwest Florida are “good stewards of the environment and natural resources,” and 55 percent felt that producers appropriately use water for irrigation.
Veteran Hendry County citrus grower Wayne Simmons said he’s pleased to learn that the majority of residents in southwest Florida hold favorable views of agriculture and food production in the region.
“As a member of several agricultural organizations that work to tell the ‘ag story,’ it is encouraging to learn that for the most part, the survey respondents were positive,” he said. “We are looking forward to enhancing our communications efforts to address some of the concerns that were expressed in the PIE Center survey and work to better educate the public on the needs of our farmers, growers and ranchers.”
Survey respondents were less positive, however, about farm worker wages and how much farmers communicate about how products are raised or grown.
More than three-fourths of respondents said their opinions would improve if more information were provided about the quality, variety and volume of the region’s production. Additionally, 74 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very interested in learning more about agriculture.
Nearly all of the 540 survey respondents knew the region produced citrus, tomatoes, sugar cane and nursery plants, and 87 percent of them recognized the cattle industry. Eleven percent of respondents erroneously believed farmers in the area produced apples.
