I went to the Small Farms Conference at Osceola Heritage Park this past Saturday morning and I saw some familiar faces, as well plenty of new ones.
It was great to see folks like Kim Lyons of Merchant Source and Rick Montney with Propak. These are two companies that are doing some exciting things in the field of agritechnology. Lyons introduced me to a new compact piece of equipment that farmers are using at farmers’ markets: you attach it to your smartphone, and it instantly allows you to swipe your customers’ credit cards for their purchases. Montney showed me a new software suite for digital filing and management that specifically has the small farms operation in mind.
I met Candace Pollock, who is the Public Relations Coordinator for the Southern SARE, and James Clements, the Enviromental Specialist II for the Office of Agricultural Water Policy at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Be looking for pictures from the conference in the next edition of Central Florida Ag News. In the meantime, pick up a copy at any one of our hundreds of news stands and subscribe to have future copies delivered to your door.