FIELD AND GROVE MAGAZINE
Profiling Southwest Florida’s Agribusiness Community

Gene McAvoy is a pleasant, industrious and no-nonsense kind of a guy. That he's dedicated to educating people about agriculture is not surprising because McAvoy is the Hendry County Extension Director specializing in vegetable and ornamental horticulture.

McAvoy received a Bachelor's and later a Master's degree from Rutgers University and did a stint in the Peace Corp's International Agriculture Program in West Africa. He later served on Rutger's faculty teaching seed and vegetable production and then returned to South Africa a few years later.

A New Jersey native, McAvoy freely admits he has no desire to live anywhere that is not designated a tropical climate.  He became acclimated to warmer climes while working in Jamaica. And it was in Jamica that an anti-American regime came to power provoking threats against McAvoy and his family members. Once threatened, they returned to the states having spent seven years in Jamaica.

McAvoy and his family eventually settled in Hendry County. "I knew about the Immokalee area," he said, "and when I was offered a position here I took it." Quick to tout the area's (and the state's) agricultural talking points, McAvoy said, "A lot of people don't realize that agriculture is the second largest industry in the state. And it's much more sustainable than building."

McAvoy serves on the Gulf Citrus Growers Association's Long Term Planning Committee and as such he seems to constantly be taking the area's collective agricultural pulse. "What we've seen are shifts in eastern Lee County and the middle of Collier into Hendry County. Agriculture is moving inland and slightly north," he reports, "Hendry County has seen tremendous growth in agriculture in the last decade."

As an extension agent for the University of Florida, McAvoy says it's his job, in essence, to keep the front door of the University open to the producers and the community. He views his position as a "conduit working in both directions'' between the growers and UF. By supplying growers with the most up to date information ascertained at the university level, he helps the growers' farming operations. McAvoy also relays information back to the university, providing UF "fodder for future research programs," he stated. "It's important to communicate."

McAvoy is clearly proud of the extension's staff. "Our employees have 15 to 20 years experience. That provides a lot of accumulated expertise." And his devotion to agriculture and those who produce is palatable.

When asked what he believes is the biggest obstacle growers face today, he said pointedly, "Regulations." Plain and simple. "How can a grower comply with all the regulations? There is an alphabet soup of acronyms that must be dealt with."

McAvoy did a study of growers and found most are spending approximately 13% of their time filling out forms and large producers spend perhaps as much as 30 %. "You're not making money doing that," he reminds us all. McAvoy also said that, "competing with other countries is also difficult for US growers because while they are so heavily regulated, farmers in other countries are not. This situation," he lamented, "is really hurting the vegetable grower."

There may be some uncertainty in our economic future, but having Gene McAvoy in our area's agricultural corner is a sure thing on which growers can depend.

By Cindy Cutright

Cindy Cutright has spent the better part of the last 25 years engaged in marketing and advertising in Southwest Florida. And though her background is in print media, her embrace of the online publishing concept has been admirable to say the least.