By Clint Thompson
The Florida Ag Expo was once again a success.
Attendees flocked to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Gulf Coast Research and Education Center on Thursday, a year after the event was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Josh McGill, Florida Ag Expo show director, estimated around 800 were in attendance, between vendors and those who pre-registered.
“We were real excited this year to be able to gather again in person. We did have to cancel last year’s event due to the pandemic. But we’re excited to be back this year, excited to be able to gather again,” McGill said. “We had a great crowd and really got a great show together. The university worked hard on an excellent lineup of seminars. We had a really good tradeshow, lot of vendors and a lot of good growers walking around the room with good conversations going on.
“I think overall the event’s been a success.”
The event provided a full day of seminars from UF researchers and industry leaders about various components of vegetable and specialty crop production. It encompassed everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to crop disease management to better management practices (BMPs).
“South Florida’s still one of the leaders in the nation with vegetable production and a very diversified vegetable production. We tried to address that in the seminars today by covering a wide range of crops, topics and technology. We also got to go out at the end of the day for the field tours and see some of those crops in the field and see some of the technology and the research the university is working on and making out here at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center,” McGill said.