But when it comes to the electronic revolution, many within the industry have been shy about signing on. Now, labor shortages, the buying habits of big grocery chains and foreign competition have left growers and shippers little choice. Consider Rick Roth, a diversified grower of lettuce, sweet corn, sod, rice, radishes and nursery trees. Every day he drives his pickup across his Everglades farmland near Belle Glade equipped with a pager, cell phone, radio/telephone, two-way radio and a laptop computer.
Roth's farm managers are similarly equipped. No longer do secretaries transcribe their scribblings on spraying, irrigating and planting schedules. "Now we enter everything into laptops and just exchange disks," Roth says. As he sees it, communication problems are a grower's biggest headache, and the new radio-gear is a godsend. "In a factory, you can put a finger on everybody," he says, "but in agriculture, everything is so spread out that it's hard to manage people." Roth especially likes his new radio\telephone, which connects him to his staff, buyers, sellers and agriculture officials via a special agriculture communication network.
Growers big and small are going high tech in one form or another. Some are trying "precision farming" -- a new approach that helps growers fine-tune their efforts with technology. Most precision farmers only use bits and pieces of the new offerings, but not Peter Spyke, owner and president of Arapaho Citrus Management in Fort Pierce. He puts them all together by using the Decision Information Systems for Citrus (DISC).
Created by a consortium of University of Florida researchers, growers and industry consultants, this artificial intelligence expert system lets Spyke develop "virtual groves" on his PC before he plants. With special software, Spyke creates a series of overlapping digital maps of his citrus groves that show a variety of attributes such as soil, root stock type, irrigation zones, planting distance and how they relate to each other. For example, the maps may show that poor crop yields scattered throughout the groves share soil types, topography and fertilizer amounts.
DISC also lets Spyke connect to the Florida On Line Weather Network (FAWN), a string of 18 automated weather-monitoring sites located from Homestead to Gainesville, with four under construction in the Panhandle. FAWN's main purpose is to provide growers with online weather data that's updated every 15 minutes. With that data, Spyke creates "disease" computer models of his groves to make more sound decisions about irrigating, spraying and harvesting. In some of Spyke's groves, "every tree is mapped."
Once his computer models are all set up, Spyke plugs in the Global Positioning System (GPS) -- a satellite-based network that pinpoints earthbound locations. An employee in a tractor receives GPS signals on a hand-held computer that guides him as he steers through the groves. Meanwhile, automated machinery on the tractor dispenses precisely measured amounts of fungicide, fertilizer or water to areas that correspond to places identified on the computer model.
The machines are smart. "The sprayers have three sensors on each side," says Spyke. "When they see a tree that's not citrus, they turn off the sprayer."
Though most growers have yet to embrace DISC, many use the Internet for e-commerce. Through foodtrader.com and agribuys.com, growers buy, sell and bid online. "It's really the way business is headed," suggests Martin May, manager of the state's Fresh From Florida program. "I don't think farmers have a choice any more but to go online."
The beauty of e-commerce, says Philip Lesser, director of economic market research department for the Department of Citrus, "is that it permits us to sell directly from broker to consumer. You don't have overhead, stores, warehouses or middlemen."
Niche marketing opportunities for farmers also abound on the Internet, points out Bruce Stockberger, vice president of SBN Yellow Pages, an online marketing firm in Riviera Beach. Stockberger is developing a website for Florida's "fancy fruit growers" to make them competitive with FTD -- the floral deliverer. "Instead of sending flowers for Valentine's Day," he says, "why not send a basket of fruit?"
Regardless of what high-tech gadgets they use, Florida growers share similar goals: Cut costs, stay competitive, add value to their products and make profits before their overseas competitors go high tech, too.
A State of Depression
Florida farmers plan to look to lawmakers to help solve some of their problems.
Farming isn't always unpredictable. Florida growers can expect bad weather, overproduction, labor problems and international trade issues to pester them in 2001 as they did last year. There's some good news, though. Florida's cattle industry is "benefiting from lower feed prices and being on the upside of the business cycle," says John Van Sickle, trade specialist and professor at the University of Florida's food and resource economics department. A robust economy with more people eating out also helps boost beef prices.
But much of Florida agriculture, says Van Sickle, is in a "depressed setting" and is likely to continue to be through this year. Drought in Florida's Panhandle has already wrecked some peanut and cotton crops and hurt Florida's forests. Meanwhile, a longer growing season, along with a glut of imported sugar, has produced surpluses and lower prices for the sugar industry. Analysts also expect overproduction in fruits and vegetables, though the orange crop could be 1.6% lower than the record 244 million boxes picked two years ago. However, a drop in citrus production in Brazil and California, along with the opening of new markets in China for Florida fruit could help stabilize prices.
Many growers are disappointed that the U.S. Senate failed last year to pass legislation introduced by Florida Sen. Bob Graham that would have upgraded the status of undocumented workers to legal temporary non-immigrants and made them easier to hire. They're hoping the legislation, which is still on the table, can garner support this year. Galen Brown, harvest program administrator for the Florida Department of Citrus, warns that if the federal government turns away all undocumented foreign workers, the citrus industry will face its second-largest harvest in history "with 75% to 90% fewer workers than before."
Despite their gloominess, growers are making money. In 1999, farm receipts in Florida, excluding forest products, totaled $7.065 billion, the highest ever, says Bob Blankenship, economic researcher for Florida's Department of Agriculture. But Florida growers also are hoping to get a bigger share of government help when things go wrong. In 1999, for instance, they received less than a half of a percent of the $20.5 billion paid out in federal assistance to the nation's farmers. "We think that's an imbalance," says Blankenship. "Our problem is to get Florida to be a bigger player on the federal level."
To get their fair share and not be sidelined in foreign trade deals that benefit other U.S. economic interests, Florida growers know they must lobby hard to be included in the upcoming national farm bill.