MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

`REDLAND RAISED' IS SMART CALL

A visitor to Miami-Dade will surely notice downtown Miami's dynamic skyline, perhaps party on South Beach and, if heading to the Florida Keys, will pass palm tree farms and several nurseries, too.

But Miami-Dade's best kept secret remains the family farms that dot the southern portion of Miami-Dade, where tomatoes, avocados, and Caribbean fruits like papayas and tubers like boniato and malanga grow.

Locals buy those goodies during the growing season from grocery stores and hawkers on street corners, but it's not always clear that the produce comes from Florida, much less from Miami-Dade's Redland and Homestead areas.

Now a new branding initiative by Miami-Dade County, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Publix Super Markets will have customers looking for the ``Redland-Raised'' label.

Smart call -- for local farmers, for advertisers, for consumers and for the environment.

Between November and April, Miami-Dade farms produce much of the vegetables sold at area supermarkets and in other parts of the nation. The new label will remind consumers they can help their local economy and feed their families.

Now other super markets, like Whole Foods and Winn-Dixie, are interested in using the ``Redland-Raised'' label. Whole foods already names the farm where the fruits and vegetables it sells were grown.

Even though development has gobbled up thousands of agricultural acres over the years and Latin American imports are competing with home-grown produce, South Florida farmers remain proud of their contribution. Indeed, Miami-Dade's agriculture business ranks second in Florida, employing 20,000 people with an economic impact of $2.7 billion annually.

That's no small potatoes.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@