South Florida is home to the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), which encompasses more than one thousand square miles of highly productive agricultural land south of Lake Okeechobee. Tens of thousands of people call the EAA home, within the rural towns of Belle Glade, Clewiston, Moore Haven, Pahokee, and South Bay.

The EAA is among the most fertile farmland in the United States due its rich 
muck soils, flat topography, abundant rainfall and sunshine making it an 
almost perfect place to grow food. 

Every year, the region provides nearly 180 million Americans with millions 
of pounds of wholesome food. With 10 fresh vegetable packinghouses, the 
EAA remains the nation’s largest supplier of winter vegetables including 
sweet corn, radishes, cabbage, celery, green beans, lettuce and other 
leafy greens. And as home to the only rice mill in Florida and 4 sugarcane 
processing facilities, the EAA is also Florida’s only producer of rice and the 
nation’s top producer of sugarcane.

In the EAA, sugarcane farming and processing creates 19,201 jobs and has 
a positive economic impact of more than $4.7 billion annually on the state’s 
economy. Farming winter and spring vegetables contribute an additional 
$380 million and thousands more jobs to Florida’s economy