ANNUAL 2005 REPORT Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................3 Message.from.the.Commissioner...............................................................4 Supporting.Florida.Agriculture...................................................................6 t Statistical Reporting t Fruit and Vegetable Inspection t License and Bond Service t State Farmers’ Markets t Livestock and Domestic Animals t Animal Disease Control t Emergency Management t Diagnostic Laboratories t Feed, Seed and Fertilizer t Best Management Practices t Agricultural Law Enforcement t Plant Protection, Inspection and Certification t Entomology, Nematology and Plant Pathology t Domestic Security Actions Promoting.Florida.Agriculture..................................................................48 t Florida Agricultural Promotional Campaign t Storming Across North America, Florida Farmers Express, Florida Watermelon Marketing Partnership t Consumer Health Initiative Campaigns t Trade Missions and Reverse Trade Missions t Thoroughbred Horse Sales to Italy t Florida Agri-Journal t Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing t Food Distribution t WIC/Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program t Emergency Response t Bureau of Education and Communication Ensuring.a.Safe,.Wholesome.Food.Supply...............................................56 t Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection t Bureau of Chemical Residue Laboratories t Bureau of Food Laboratories t Protecting Citizens in the Event of Food Terrorism t Milk Products t Aquaculture  Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT Table of Contents Conserving.the.Natural.Environment.......................................................70 t Scientific Evaluation Section t Ground Water Protection t Surface Water Protection t Endangered Species Protection Program t Pest Control Section t Commissioner’s Agricultural Environmental Leadership Awards Program t Forestry Programs t Natural Resource Management t Forest Resource Management and Support Services t Forestry Youth Academy t Training Safeguarding.Consumers.........................................................................90 t Division of Consumer Services t Call Center t Consumer Complaints t New Motor Vehicle Lemon Law t Regulated Programs t Investigations t Consumer Education t Division of Standards t Petroleum Inspection t Weights and Measures t Fair Ride Inspections t LP Gas Inspection t Division of Licensing Promoting.Employee.Excellence............................................................100 t Training and Development t Awards t Minority Business t Department Web Presence t AGMIC – Agriculture Management Information Center t Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and Health, Safety and Security Manual t Office of Inspector General  Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT INTRODUCTION The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Agriculture is Florida’s second-largest industry and has an Services is the largest and most diverse state agriculture annual economic impact estimated at $62 billion. The department in the country. Supporting Florida’s farmers support the Department provides agriculture helps keep the may be our best-known role, but it is just one of our many industry and our economy strong. We collect and disseminate important responsibilities. Florida agricultural statistics; manage Florida’s state and community farmers’ markets; enforce state animal health We inspect your grocery stores for cleanliness and safety. We regulations; inspect feed, seed and fertilizer; and help farmers handle consumer complaints, helping resolve disagreements fight crop pests and diseases. We provide farmers with between buyers and sellers. We inspect scales and gas assistance in the production of food and also in its marketing pumps so you get what you pay for. We help during and promotion. The Department organizes trade missions emergencies. The Department’s activities touch the lives and reverse trade missions, develops marketing campaigns of virtually every Floridian every day. This annual report and advertising strategies, and represents Florida agriculture tells our story, a story that began nearly 140 years ago. at food conferences and trade shows around the globe. The Department ensures the safety and wholesomeness Without a healthy environment, a healthy future for Florida of Florida’s food supply through rigorous inspection and agriculture is impossible. The Department encourages testing programs. Retail food stores and processing plants farmers and ranchers to use Best Management Practices to are regularly monitored for proper sanitation and safe help conserve Florida’s soil, surface water and groundwater. food-handling procedures. The Department checks the In addition, we provide comprehensive pesticide regulatory accuracy of product labels, net weights and grade standards. programs that protect the environment and public health. Lab tests ensure the absence of food-borne pathogens and The Department includes the Division of Forestry, which other contaminants. Fruits and vegetables are analyzed manages about a million acres of state forestland for natural for the presence of pesticide residue; dietary supplements, resource conservation and public enjoyment. for dangerous ephedra alkaloids; and seafood, for unsafe levels of mercury. The Department is responsible for wildfire prevention, If you have a problem with a merchant or business, we’re the detection and suppression in Florida. We educate the ones to call. The Department is the state’s clearinghouse for public about wildfire prevention and manage the state’s consumer complaints. Our toll-free Florida-only helpline, controlled burn program. In the event of a natural or 1-800-HELP-FLA, or 1-800-FL-AYUDA for Spanish- manmade disaster, the Department provides emergency speaking consumers, is one of the busiest in the nation, with management. As the lead agency for Emergency Support 20 full-time analysts staffing the phones. The Department Function 11, we are responsible for distributing food, water regulates car repair shops, charitable organizations, health and ice to disaster victims. The Department also sees to studios, dance studios, pawnbrokers, telemarketers, and the emergency needs of livestock and other animals. Our sellers of travel. Our oversight in these areas is designed Division of Animal Industry is charged with securing to promote a positive business environment in Florida and emergency housing facilities, food, water and medical care to protect consumers. for animals displaced during a disaster.  Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT MESSAGE from the Commissioner In 2004-2005, Florida’s agriculture industry faced what education campaigns on the topics of food safety and storm was perhaps its most challenging period in recent memory. preparation. We extended the hours of our price-gouging Florida’s farmers and farm workers were devastated by four hotline, followed up on complaints, and filed numerous back-to-back hurricanes that wiped out crops; tore apart lawsuits against unscrupulous merchants. As mosquito horticulture greenhouses, dairy facilities and fishing boats; breeding spiked following the heavy rains and flooding, our and caused severe damage to everything from oyster beds Division of Agricultural Environmental Services assisted with and citrus groves to the state’s forestland. mosquito-control efforts. Our farmers responded to the storms with characteristic Some effects of the hurricanes were immediately obvious, courage, determination and energy. The Florida Department while others took weeks and even months to become of Agriculture and Consumer Services was there to help them apparent. The stealthy spread of citrus canker falls in the move forward. latter category. This serious bacterial disease had been almost eradicated in Florida until the 2004 hurricanes In the immediate aftermath of the storms, the Department carried it to counties where it had never been seen before. deployed hundreds of personnel to assist in the recovery effort. The Division of Forestry dispatched Interagency The hurricanes presented some of the year’s greatest Incident Management Teams to impacted counties, challenges, but they were not the only challenges or our only along with chainsaw strike teams, potable water trailers, focus, of course. The Department developed multimedia refrigerated trucks, incident planning teams, and heavy campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of dozers for debris removal. Officers and investigators with healthy eating and exercise. In addition, we cracked down the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement deployed over a on business opportunity and work-at-home scams. Our hundred personnel to assist the public following the storms. Division of Animal Industry continued to survey and test They performed urban search and rescue and anti-looting for avian influenza, and we deployed inspectors to pet stores patrols, and formed price-gouging task forces to investigate to assure compliance with Florida’s Pet Law. In the course predatory business practices. Meanwhile, the Division of of operating 22 Agricultural Interdiction Stations and six Animal Industry, in conjunction with a host of public and investigative regions, officers and investigators intercepted private partners, assisted in animal rescue and evacuation, numerous plant and animal violations that could have coordinated direct veterinary care, and provided emergency been devastating to the state’s agricultural industry. Once food and water to livestock and small animal shelters. again, the Division of Marketing and Development’s annual produce marketing promotions generated hundreds of The damage sustained by Florida agriculture was millions of dollars in increased retail sales. unprecedented – fruit lay on the ground, pastureland was under water, and sweet corn and sugarcane fields were The Department’s work is wide-ranging, complex, and flattened. The Department helped farmers assess and then critical to Florida’s farmers and consumers. Here, I’ve only communicate the extent of their losses, and we worked just scratched the surface. This annual report will tell you around the clock to help secure federal assistance. Thanks more about the important things we do. to Washington’s quick response, growers were soon able to get back on their feet and back to the business of feeding Florida – and America. The Department worked to protect consumers as well as Charles H. Bronson  farmers in the wake of the storms. We launched public Commissioner of Agriculture Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT SUPPORTING Florida Agriculture Statistical Reporting: Reliable information is essential to making production, marketing and policy decisions for the agricultural community. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services shares in a cooperative federal/state program responsible for collecting and disseminating Florida agricultural statistics. Information on the state’s major commodities is gathered through on-site producer surveys, voluntary mail questionnaires, and telephone and personal interviews. Statistics compiled from these data are available in over 200 reports issued annually. In the past year, the public relations bell peppers, watermelon, squash, and efforts of the Florida Agricultural greenhouse and nursery crops. Florida Statistics Service (FASS) included leads the nation in production of staffing an informational booth at citrus, sugarcane, foliage plants, cut industry trade shows for citrus and floral greens and tropical fish, and cattle. The booths allow FASS to ranks second in the production of promote its role in the industry and fresh market vegetables. increase the visibility of our reports. Citrus An initial citrus production forecast In 2004, Florida’s agricultural is issued in October and modified cash receipts amounted to $6.85 monthly through the citrus season billion, 4.3 percent higher than in based on fruit size measurements 2003. Cash receipts were lower and observations on droppage. These for cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, forecasts are based exclusively on snap beans, cotton, sugarcane, and objective data obtained directly by field personnel, including floriculture; receipts were higher for cattle and calves, an extensive limb count survey conducted from July into broilers, eggs, peanuts, strawberries and green peppers. September to estimate fruit set per tree. Florida’s citrus Florida leads the nation in cash receipts for oranges, growers, hit hard by three hurricanes, produced an estimated grapefruit, tangerines, cucumbers, and sugarcane and ranks 151.2 million boxes of all oranges and 12.8 million boxes  second in cash receipts for tomatoes, strawberries, sweet corn, of grapefruit in the 2004-2005 season. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner ANNUAL 2005 REPORT Cash receipts for all citrus crops sold in 2004 totaled $1.24 due to increased production in 2004. Tobacco growers billion compared to $1.23 billion in 2003. Citrus accounted produced 9.8 million pounds of tobacco, valued at $17.2 for 18 percent of all cash receipts in 2004. million in 2004. Decreases in production for cotton lint and cottonseed produced cash receipts of $28.7 million in Vegetables 2004, compared to $40 million in 2003. Florida growers harvested fresh market vegetables from 185,800 acres in 2004. Cash receipts for all vegetables Other.Fruits.and.Nuts amounted to $1.38 billion, which amounted to 20 percent Receipts for other fruits and nuts, such as avocados, of all cash receipts in 2004. Tomatoes, peppers, sweet blueberries, mangos and pecans, at $91.7 million, were corn, cucumbers, and snap beans accounted for the largest lower than in 2003. amount of sales among vegetable crops. Dairy An increase in milk production in 2004 and higher prices Greenhouse.and.Nursery.Production resulted in increased cash receipts of $432 million compared The total value of Florida greenhouse and nursery to $330 million in 2003. production exceeds $1.5 billion. The foliage and floriculture industry contributed $826 million, down from Cattle.and.Calves $831 million in 2003. The total number of cattle and calves was unchanged from 2004, but higher prices resulted in cash receipts for Berries.and.Melons all cattle and calves of $443 million compared to $348 Strawberry production and prices for 2004 were up from million in 2003. the year before, resulting in cash receipts of $178 million compared to $129 million in 2003. Increases in prices and Poultry.and.Eggs production for watermelons resulted in an increase in total Egg sales in 2004 totaled $160 million, up from $145 value to $67.2 million in 2004. million in 2003. Broiler production was down slightly in 2004, but sales increased to $208 million from $179 million Field.Crops in 2003 due to higher prices. Potato production in 2004 decreased from the previous year resulting in cash receipts of $97.1 million to growers. Aquaculture Sugarcane production was down from the previous year Aquaculture contributed an estimated $96 million to total and total cash receipts fell slightly to $550 million in cash receipts. Tropical fish and aquatic plants accounted 2004. Cash receipts for peanuts increased to $68.1 million, for the majority of the sales in this category.  Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services • CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner