Voices of Florida Farmers: Building a Circular Bioeconomy

Florida agriculture quietly underpins everyday life in the Sunshine State, shaping everything from grocery prices and water quality to how communities bounce back after a hurricane. In this episode of the Climate Correction Podcast, host Shannon Maganiezin sits down with the team behind the newly released report, Voices of Florida Farmers: Building a Circular Bioeconomy, to explore how the state's farmers, ranchers, foresters, and aquaculturists are producing more with less land, water, and resources, while keeping food affordable and local economies strong.  Leading the conversation is Courtney Girgis, the report's lead author, who grew up on a beef cattle, corn, and soybean farm in northern Missouri and now writes about agriculture from her family's small-acreage farm in Oklahoma. Courtney unpacks what a "circular bioeconomy" means in practice: an approach to agriculture that moves away from the linear "make, use, waste" model and instead keeps nutrients, water, and materials cycling, starting with healthy soil and extending outward into partnerships across the food system.  Joining her are three of the Florida producers featured in the report. Beaver Yoder, a Florida Panhandle cattle rancher, partners with neighboring crop farmers to graze his herd on cover crops between cash crop seasons, a practice that builds soil health, fertilizes fields, and creates a new revenue stream for everyone involved. Lanette Sobel, founder of Fertile Earth Worm Farm (now the largest commercial composting operation in South Florida), works across a wide network of distributors, food pantries, and farms to make sure food scraps go to their "highest <span class= "TextRun SCXW252141129 BCX0" lang="EN-US"