OUTSTANDING in His Field FLORIDA’S FARMER OF THE YEAR LEADS BY EXAMPLE By Cathy Lockman
RICK ROTH has a philosophy of cooperation that has motivated his work life for more than 44 years. “When it comes to being a farmer, a member of the Florida Farm Bureau or a legislator, I’ve been very fortunate to have opportunities to work together with others on issues that matter to me,” Roth says. “The focus on solving problems and making a difference is very satisfying, especially when you get to do it with others who are dedicated to the same thing.” That sense of common cause – and the success it has inspired – earned Roth recognition as the 2020 Florida Farmer of the Year. A vegetable, herb, rice, sugar cane and sod producer, Roth and his family own nearly 4,000 acres and a major packing house in Belle Glade. It’s an operation that his father, Ray, started in 1948, when he left the family farm in Ohio, renting 100 acres in Florida sight unseen. Ray began buying his own land in 1955 – first 110 acres and then 1,666 more in 1962 as part of a multiple farmer purchase. Rick joined his dad in 1976, and together they expanded their operation, adding four more parcels of land in the decades that followed. 24
“My dad was an amazing man,” Roth says. “He was much more of a farmer than I am. He envisioned and established the operation that is still the core of what we do today.” That legacy is honored not just by the farm’s growth, but also by Ray’s Heritage, a 60,000-square-foot packing house built in 2006.
“The Farm Bureau is a great organization, where all of that comes together in common cause, to serve the industry and the public.” - Rick Roth, legislator
SOLVING PROBLEMS A 1976 graduate of Emory University, Roth studied math, a major that has provided him with not only the numbers background to run a successful business, but a way of looking at issues that makes him a problem solver. The farming community’s efforts to solve an environmental issue allowed him to utilize those problem-solving principles. He explains that the problem of nutrient runoff came to a head in 1988 with lawsuits to protect the remaining Everglades.
FLORIDAGRICULTURE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
“The entire ag industry worked with the South Florida Water Management District to develop a matrix of best management practices to control phosphorus runoff from farms,” Roth says. While he admits it’s been a long process, with the problem not fully solved until 2015, he’s proud of the results and the farming community’s determination to solve their runoff problem. “We solved this together. In 1994, the water going into the Everglades system had a phosphorus concentration of 180 parts per billion. Now it’s 10 parts per billion,”
