Episode 130: A New Direction in Florida Citrus with Benny McLean

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Science, Natural Sciences, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 548 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2024

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Benny McLean has decades of experience in citrus. As the Director of Grove Operations at Uncle Matt's Organic, Benny has played a pivotal role in transforming the company's approach to farming. Growing up in a farming family, Benny has always had a close connection to the land, which has informed his deep understanding of the challenges and rewards of agriculture. Over the years, he witnessed the adverse effects of conventional farming practices, including soil degradation and diminishing returns. This led him to explore regenerative approaches to farming.

Benny's commitment to regenerative agriculture is not just about maintaining high-quality citrus production but also preserving the environment for future generations. His work at Uncle Matt's Organic has focused on enhancing soil health, reducing chemical inputs, and promoting biodiversity, all while ensuring that the business remains economically viable.

In this episode, John and Benny discuss:

Historical farming practices in the citrus industry
Long-term impacts from glyphosate due to its absorption by trees
How impacts from freezes led banks to halt loans in northern Florida
The decline of sustainable practices like the use of hairy indigo to control nematodes
Issues with modern budwood practices
Potential benefits of cover crops used in citrus groves
Current irrigation practices and possible changes
Citrus greening and its impact on the industry

Additional Resources
To learn more about Uncle Matt's Organic, please visit: https://www.unclematts.com/

About John Kempf
John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow
Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.

AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.

AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.

Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi friends, this is John. Welcome to the Regenerative Agriculture podcast. Today I'm here with a long-standing friend of mine, Benny McLean, from Uncle Matt's organic citrus in Florida.
0:10.0	And I wanted to have a conversation with Benny around the history of how he has seen the citrus industry evolve because he has the benefit of having been very present in a local place
0:24.4	for a very long period of time. So Benny, thank you for being willing to be here, for being
0:27.8	willing to share your story. I still remember a story that you shared with me a number of years
0:34.5	ago about the first applications of Roundup and how you saw things
0:42.4	occurring there on your citrus crops, the citrus crops that you were helping to manage
0:46.2	at the time.
0:47.6	And now we live in this moment where at this moment the citrus industry in Florida is less
0:53.7	than 10% of what it was as little as 10 or 15 years ago.
0:58.0	I'd love to just get your perspective on where have we come from? Where are we going? How did we get here?
1:05.0	Well, I appreciate the opportunity, John, to chat with you. And I have no problem talking about the history of
1:14.6	citrus in Florida. Obviously, I grew up in it. And I'm the oldest of five boys. And we're all
1:23.1	in the citrus business, with exception of one brother, He was the coach over in Merritt Island for,
1:30.5	he just retired here last year. But having grown up with my dad, who was an expert in the citrus
1:38.2	business, he graduated from UF in 1939 with a degree in ag and he actually set up the citrus class at Florida Southern
1:50.6	College in Lakeland and taught there for a couple of years in the early 50s like 51, 52, something
1:58.1	like that. I don't remember exactly. But anyway, so he was well respected in the
2:04.7	citrus industry and the opportunity for me to grow up riding with my dad in the citrus groves
2:13.8	where I had two younger sisters before the next brother. So I got all of the opportunity
2:20.8	to ride in my dad. And obviously, every day was something he would point out about the trees,
2:28.9	the groves, irrigation, you know, fertilizer, blah, blah, blah. So I'll fast forward to when glyphosate was first introduced.
2:43.0	And I had a caretaking company here in in Claremont. So we did a lot of contract herbicide and herbicide was not popular at that time.
	...

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