UF/IFAS farm grows food-as-medicine crops
- University of Florida researchers in Homestead are using a three-acre UF/IFAS farm to test culturally relevant vegetables for South Florida growers and consumers. - The AgroEco Park project evaluated 56 vegetable and cover-crop types across three growing seasons, including edamame, specialty peppers, herbs and ube. - The farm plugs into UF’s wider Food is Medicine push linking agriculture, Extension and chronic-disease research. (ifas.ufl.edu)
At AgroEco Park in Homestead, University of Florida researchers are growing vegetables as a health intervention as much as a farm crop. (ifas.ufl.edu) The three-acre demonstration farm sits at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Tropical Research and Education Center and is focused on nutrient-dense crops that match South Florida’s Asian, Caribbean and Latin American food traditions. (ifas.ufl.edu) Xiaoying “Shawn” Li, an assistant professor of horticulture vegetable crops at UF/IFAS, leads the community ethnic vegetable Extension program behind the project. Li’s team has been identifying crops that can handle South Florida heat and limestone-rich soils while fitting local demand. (ifas.ufl.edu) The basic idea is simple: if clinics, nutrition programs and families want healthier diets, somebody has to grow the foods people already know how to cook and want to eat. UF describes that broader model as “Food is Medicine,” which includes produce prescriptions, medically tailored meals and other nutrition-based care. (ask.ifas.ufl.edu) That approach is moving through UF beyond one farm. In March, UF/IFAS said its Food is Medicine initiative had awarded $349,250 to six research projects tied to chronic-disease prevention and management through food. (ifas.ufl.edu) UF/IFAS said the initiative includes nearly 200 faculty members across 10 University of Florida colleges, linking plant science, Extension, clinical research and community health work. (ifas.ufl.edu) At the Homestead farm, Li’s group evaluated 56 vegetable and cover-crop types over three growing seasons — spring 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026 — to see which crops fit local conditions and planting windows. (ifas.ufl.edu) UF/IFAS says South Florida growers are shifting away from a narrow set of conventional vegetables toward higher-value specialty crops, and the farm is meant to give them field data before they bet acreage on that change. (ifas.ufl.edu) The project also folds in lower-input farming methods, including cover cropping, integrated pest management and planting schedules tailored to subtropical conditions. UF frames that as part of making the region’s vegetable production more climate-resilient and less environmentally intensive. (ifas.ufl.edu) The closing message from UF is that better nutrition starts upstream, with what farmers can profitably grow close to where patients and shoppers live. In Homestead, that means treating crop selection as part of the health system. (ifas.ufl.edu)
