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HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) - Farmers in Homestead have been feeling the effects stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, as some of their crops are sitting in fields going unused as a result.
Fresh produce sales have plummeted amid the coronavirus pandemic, and John Alger has had to sell his crop to be processed and canned.
“They’re not buying fresh produce right now, and we’re dying on the vine,” Alger said. “We’re having to sell to the processors right now because the fresh market is just not moving. If it wasn’t for that, I’d be dicing all this up, wouldn’t harvest it.”
South Florida farmers are struggling to keep their heads above ground but still working, planting and harvesting to try and continue to feed the region and the rest of the country.
On the other side of town, Sam Accursio said the pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on his business.
Restaurants that have been shuttered means less sales, and the demand from big box stores has declined.
“Never anything like this; it’s horrible,” Accursio said. “It made a big glut in the market in Florida. It got to a point to where we had to stop harvest.”
7News cameras captured several piles of zucchini on the ground at a farm. Farmers have been forced to dump hundreds of pounds of fresh produce in order to save their crop, which ends up rotting away.
However, the biggest frustration for the farmers is while their sales have dropped, the U.S. continues to import from other countries.
“Mexico is still shipping 70 loads of squash per day while I’m harvesting and dumping mine,” Accursio said. “It just makes no sense to me. It’s a wake-up call for all Americans that we have to support ourselves. Farmers, we’re optimists, we always think there’s hope around the next corner.”
“When the American farmer is out of here, then we’re going to be dependent on non-domestic growers,” Alger said. “We cannot allow that to happen. Working hard to keep America fed and let’s all get through this terrible crisis.”
Both Alger and Accursio are donating some of their extra supply to local food banks.
Meanwhile, the farmers are asking South Florida to buy local fresh produce when they go to the stores.
A representative for the Miami-Dade County Farm Bureau said they are working with the state to get the products from Homestead on shelves in other parts across the state.
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