By Clint Thompson
Florida’s agricultural industry is in the spotlight this week at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, Georgia. Florida is this year’s Spotlight State, which allows the “Fresh From Florida” campaign to be on display for visitors to come see.
Florida Ag Commissioner Wilton Simpson was in attendance on Tuesday and talked about this opportunity to promote Florida agriculture on the heels of two devastating hurricanes – Helene and Milton.
“We are very proud of what we do in Florida. Obviously, we’ve been hit really hard the last few weeks. We’re recovering. The good news is that we’re very resilient. Farmers are extremely resilient. We’re proud of the recovery efforts,” Simpson said. “We’ve got a lot of damage. Our iconic strawberry crop has been planted or being planted, and that was hit really hard; citrus, cattle, silviculture, all of it has been hit really hard.
“But we’re proud to be here today in Moultrie. I don’t know of any other country, even with all of the hurricanes, that I’d rather live in or any better state. We’re very proud of our team here and what they’ve done here in Moultrie.”
Back-to-Back Hurricanes
Hurricane Helene hammered North Florida on Sept. 26. Milton followed a couple of weeks later and made landfall in Siesta Key on Oct. 9.
“It’s been hell. We’ve had Helene come through and really damage, not only our coastline but a lot of agriculture in the Big Bend area. It’s been hit three times in the last year. Then Hurricane Milton came across the state and had unprecedented flooding in the interior of our state,” Simpson said. “It’s something that we will recover.”
The Sunbelt Ag Expo started Tuesday and concludes on Thursday.