This is how successful Everglades restoration works: get science and nature to work together. That’s what Big Sugar has done, and it’s working.
Florida’s sugar farmers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing the most advanced environmental research being done anywhere, and in implementing these science-based Best Management Practices. Use of BMPs by sugar farmers has reduced phosphorus levels by 55 percent over the past 17 years.
This is the message of a short vignette titled “Florida’s Sugar Farmers, Part of the Solution,” showing the role of Florida’s farmers in preserving the Everglades ecosystem.
Together, Florida Crystals, US Sugar Corp, and Sugar Can Growers Cooperative of Florida have undertaken an outreach program to educate viewers about their role in successful restoration efforts, and to celebrate the passage of landmark state legislation that will complete the final phase of the process.
During the 2013 session, Big Sugar worked closely with policymakers and environmental advocates to set terms that provide a framework for the funding of ecosystem restoration projects — and the resulting bill was passed unanimously by the Florida House and Senate.
A transcription of the vignette is here:
It’s beautiful when science and nature work together.
And it’s happening with Everglades restoration.
Sugar farmers have invested in some of the most advanced environmental research being done anywhere.
Using smart farming methods to preserve Florida’s precious resources.
It’s working.
Now, environmentalists have joined with sugar farmers and policymakers to put the final phase of restoration in place.
Florida sugar farmers. Part of the solution.
