Glades Leaders To Federal Government: Protect Our Jobs  & Our Water Supply

By Joe Kyles, Mayor of South Bay, FL

Immediately after taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden committed to supporting minority populations by adopting an executive order promoting environmental and economic justice. In his order, the president pledged, “To secure an equitable economic future, the United States must ensure that environmental and economic justice are key considerations in how we govern.” In our Glades communities, which are so heavily dependent on jobs in agriculture, it seems recent federal actions related to providing water for our local businesses may conflict with the president’s ambitious goals.

The reality is that most of the folks who live in the Glades region either work in farming or are connected in some way. If you walk into a church, attend a youth football game, or even pull up to a gas station anywhere in the Glades, chances are you’ll be interacting with someone who either works for a farming company or one of the many vendors that help make our communities among the most productive farming regions in the entire United States. With that said, it’s incredibly important that the federal government remains a partner – not an obstacle – to providing our local farmers with the water resources they need, as outlined by federal law.

Farming in Florida contributes nearly $245 billion to our state’s economy and provides food to Americans across our great nation. Here in the Glades, the sugarcane industry supports more than 19,000 jobs and contributes $4.7 billion to our economy. Farming winter and spring vegetables that feed millions of American families during the winter are grown in close rotation with sugarcane.

Jobs in farming are only part of the equation. Farmers and their employees are some of the most selfless individuals who regularly contribute their time and their money to many local causes. Whether it’s coaching a baseball team, organizing a barbecue or bake sale for a family in need, volunteering at schools or contributing to a charity fundraiser, some of the most involved people in the Glades are also those who work in agriculture.

Back in 2000, Congress passed a law signed by President Bill Clinton that enshrined South Florida’s water rights (based on water rights in 2000) in what is known as the “savings clause.” This legislation, which has been law of the land for 24 years, helped ensure that farming areas like ours would be given the certainty to have the water they are legally permitted to receive—even as Everglades restoration projects are built. But due to recent decisions by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assert lower water levels for environmental reasons, the federal government’s ability to follow its own law has been put into doubt.

We need leaders in the Biden Administration to stand up for our communities to ensure that our farming region – which provides food including sweet corn, green beans, leafy greens, sugar and rice for up to 180 million Americans annually – can continue to flourish.

It cannot be overstated that harming the water supply to support agriculture in the Glades area would be devastating to our farms, our farmers, our economy and ultimately the health of our entire communities. Local businesses would collapse. There would be significant job loss, and our families would suffer for the foreseeable future.

I speak for the Glades area leadership when I say we can’t support actions that have such negative consequences, whether intended or not. That’s why we encourage people to get the facts before they make decisions about our communities, our water supply and issues that affect our Glades area families. Our diverse communities, each with a rich farming history, deserve the federal government’s support. President Biden and his administration must do more to correct this unfair disparity.