How much farmland has disappeared in Manatee County as new development creeps east?
Farming in Manatee County has been shrinking for years as it’s pushed further east by economic forces, natural disasters and growth and development.
In 1969, there were 319,664 acres of farmland in Manatee County, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Census.
In 2017, there were 192,630 acres.
Every five years, the USDA releases its farm census. When the 2023 census is released in 2024, Gary Reeder, president of the Manatee County Farm Bureau, expects that farm acreage will be substantially less than in the recent past.
“NAFTA put a big hurting on the tomato industry. There used to be 11 packing houses in the Palmetto area, and now there are maybe 2 1/2. The labor situation is horrible,” said Reeder, a retired tomato grower.
In July, Ag Mart Produce, which has farms in Myakka City and Duette, advised the State of Florida that it was laying off 120 workers, citing competition from Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
In 2020, the Harllee family, who started farming in Manatee County shortly after the Civil War, and helped pioneer the Florida tomato industry, sold the Harllee Packing House in Palmetto.
Yue Zhou Development LLC bought the 18 acre property at 2308 U.S. 301 N. for $6,750,000.
Weather and disease have taken their toll, too.
Last September, Hurricane Ian Hurricane Ian cut a path through Florida’s citrus belt and hit tomato fields just before the start of seasonal harvests.
Florida’s citrus industry was already reeling from diseases like canker and greening, and this season was the worst in 100 years.
Ian also hurt Dakin Dairy Farms, 30771 Betts Road, Myakka City. Owner Jerry Dakin estimated the damage at $3 million, plus 360 cows lost during the storm and said in January it will take years to recover from Ian.
Massive development
“If you can’t make a profit, you can’t farm,” Reeder said.
Developers have been more than happy to snap up farm land.
Manatee County’s largest master planned communities — Lakewood Ranch, Heritage Harbor and North River Ranch — are all being developed on former farm land.
Among the projects going before the Manatee County Planning Commission this week are three accounting for nearly 5,500 homes.
None of these are new. Firethorn, Cone Ranch and McClure-Eisenhower – EPG Moccasin Wallow Development have been working their way through the Manatee County permitting system for several year.
What they share in common is that they are all in the Parrish area and all are planned on former agriculture land.
Lisa Hickey, interim extension director for Manatee County, said recently that a grower told her this fall will be his last season.
“The cost of fuel, equipment, seeds and packaging, have escalated so much, he will barely have a profit and it is not worth his energy,” Hickey said in an email.
In her conversations with growers who have closed their doors, almost everyone cited:
▪ Foreign competition, which has tighten the market window so small that the Florida farmer has only a few days to make the best profit before foreign trade drives the market price down. In recent years, the window was 2-4 weeks.
▪ Changes in labor laws and ability to get quality labor on the farm
▪ Recent law changes on water quality standards for post-harvest waters
▪ Complaints on pesticide application impacting the neighboring communities.
“I don’t know of any FDACS (Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) cases where the complaint was a true violation of FDACS ruling,” Hickey said.
For the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2022, Manatee County issued 6,079 new residential permits compared to 5,897 in fiscal 2020-21, and 3,696 in fiscal 2019-20, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
For the first six months of the year, Lakewood Ranch sold 1,227 new homes, 20% more than in the first half of 2022.
The reality of development
In 2021, McClure Properties sought rezoning for acreage between Buckeye Road and Moccasin Wallow Road that it had farmed for more than 50 years.
The rezone would allow 1,900 residential units and 122,600-square-feet of nonresidential use.
“It’s very difficult to farm when you’re surrounded by houses and we have decided to sell the property,” Bob Spencer, president of West Coast Tomato, said in 2021.
John Falkner LLC, one of Manatee County’s largest property owners with 21,758.73 acres, has added development to his main line of farming.
In 2021, Falkner’s Rye Ranch LLC filed a rezoning application to develop a 3,500-unit residential development on 1,368.5 acres of farm land at 17855 County Road 675.
Also proposed for the property are 300,000-square feet of non-residential development, and 20,000-square-feet of public use facilities.
Farming by the numbers
In Manatee County, 89% of farm sales were for crops. The remaining 11% of sales were for livestock, poultry and animal products, according to the 2017 farm census.
The largest farm use was for pastures, 44%, followed by cropland, 37%, woodland, 13% and other, 6%.
In 2017, Manatee County ranked fourth among Florida’s 67 counties with $321 million in crop sales. Notably, it was ranked second for vegetable, melon, potato and sweet potato sales and sixth in milk production.
The total value of all Manatee agriculture sales was estimated at $369,119,000, making it the second largest sector of the local economy behind tourism.
“Agriculture here, in Manatee County, is not only large and diverse, but it is carried out in one of the most complex areas in our nation, with an abundance of pest, environmental and weather problems, increasing urbanization, foreign competition, along with state and federal regulations,” the Farm Bureau website says.
This story was originally published August 11, 2023 at 5:50 AM.
