BAKER — Jennifer Bearden stood in a field Thursday morning with acres and acres of cotton behind her.
In front, nearly two dozen representatives from local, county and state agencies listened as she shared the concerns of local farmers during the 2013 Legislative Farm Tour.
“We’re talking about the food supply that feeds us and the fiber supply that clothes us,” said Bearden, a local agriculture agent with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences. “These are issues that need to be heard and resolved.”
The tour keeps an open dialogue between the farmers who work tirelessly to produce and the officials who can help make their efforts easier with regulations and representation, according to Bearden, who works in Okaloosa County.
Representatives from state Rep. Doug Broxson’s and state Sen. Greg Evers’ offices joined area agriculture agents and other officials for the tour. Stops included Yellow River Vineyards, a soybean farm, cotton field, Holley farms and Crestview Hydroponics.
Farmers told visitors that deer were one of their main concerns. The animals are eating crops and causing other devastation.
At a cotton field in Baker, crops that should have stood 5 feet tall were a fifth that size. A farmer told officials that deer had forced him to replant his crop. The farmer likely lost about 90 percent of his produce, according to Jerald Edmondson, a retired director of Okaloosa County’s extension of University of Florida’s IFAS.
“We’ve been preaching and begging for years to get this problem resolved,” Edmondson said. “We really haven’t made a lot of progress, though.”
One solution farmers favor is changing deer hunting laws in Blackwater River State Park.
Other concerns addressed were management and marketing of small farms, water conservation and new farming techniques.
“We try to get farmers in this area to voice their concerns to the people who can make the changes,” said Molly Huffman, administrator of the Okaloosa County Farm Bureau.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Angel McCurdy at 850-315-4432 or amccurdy@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AngelMnwfdn.