AT A TIME when giving and receiving gifts is on the forefront of everyone’s mind, we thought it would be a good idea to remind our readers about an incredible gift to Florida’s agriculture industry: technology. We don’t have to reach back very far to truly appreciate how science, research, and the technology it produces has made agriculture in this great state more productive.
As a multigenerational Floridian and farming family, the Kirklands have stories that reach back to when there were no tractors, weather stations, telephones, or — for that matter — hot running water! But ours is just one farming family, and our region is full of multigenerational growers who know and can relate to this message.
Certainly, the technology we are harnessing today plays a vital role in the much-needed food we grow and produce. You may or may not be aware that as farmers and ranchers, we face an incredible challenge in the future. According to experts, we must be ready to feed a world that will hold an estimated 9.6 billion people by 2050. In order to do that, we must reach headlong into the future for ideas, and utilize the power of research and science to make the ideas a technological reality. That’s what this edition of Central Florida Ag News is all about. The time is ripe, and certainly, if we are to succeed in the future, the time is now to harness the power of technology in order to increase production while we remain environmental stewards of the land.
I hope you will soak up every word of the agri-technology edition (December 2015), because it contains within these pages a glimpse into an industry that is constantly changing in order to meet the demands of our growing world. Thanks for reading Central Florida Ag News magazine and, from all of us, we wish you Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
CREDIT
column by NELSON KIRKLAND
Nelson Kirkland is publisher of Central Florida Ag News. He may be reached by e-mail at nelson@centralfloridamediagroup.com.