The Candidate
MEET ADAM
Get To Know Adam!
Adam is a business owner and candidate for Congress to fill the vacant seat in Florida's 3rd district. Born in Olathe, Kansas, Adam was raised in Palm Harbor, Florida pre-recession before moving to Indiana, where his father got a job for Eli-Lilly. Following his graduation from high school, he attended and graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia as a 3-sport athlete with a degree in Biology.
Following college, Adam decided to move back to Florida and started his first company with $3,000 in his pocket. Two years later he and his business partners started a second company in Gainesville, Fl which they recently sold. Having grown up a republican in a deep red state, he saw first-hand what can happen to communities hit hardest by financial greed. Rising drug costs, the opioid epidemic, and the housing crises affected every part of the state.
Learn More About Adam!
Another formative experience happened after being mistakenly arrested in Central Florida while coaching a high school soccer game. During this experience, he saw firsthand the harm that over-policing, private prisons, and the predatory cash bail industry do to our communities. This experience helped him form the belief that systems that are designed to prey on the poor and middle class should not exist in a just or moral society, and that the greed of these systems is what has caused the majority of the issues and hurt that we have today in Central Florida.
Adam currently lives in Gainesville Fl, with his pomsky puppy Pummel. He is ready to be a champion for the working class as a member of Congress.
Predatory Practices
The Commissioner of Agriculture can take legal action against individuals or companies using and/or selling fertilizers containing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus over the state limit.
Keep Poison Out of Our Water
187 out of 261 Florida beaches were deemed ‘unswimmable’ for at least one day due to this pollution.
Agricultural Runoff
We Can:
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Eliminate Red Tide
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Prevent Eutrophication
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Enforce our State Laws
As a state almost completely surrounded by water, a vital portion of our state’s economy and livelihood relies on both our saltwater and freshwater sources being healthy, free from pollutants, and conserved for future use.
Across Florida, we have seen increasingly harmful algal blooms and eutrophication of bodies of water - specifically in Tampa, where the problem of Red Tide has been exacerbated by a fertilizer plant in Manatee County dumping over 200 million gallons of fertilizer-filled water into the bay. These algal bloom events have the potential to kill millions of marine life, release toxins harmful to humans into the air, impact the economic state of Florida, and many other adverse impacts on public health and wellbeing.
The cause of algal blooms and eutrophication has much to do with levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizers running off into bodies of water. To ensure the health of Florida’s precious waters, the Commissioner of Agriculture can take legal action against individuals or companies using and/or selling fertilizers containing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus over the state limit.
[2]https://myfwc.com/media/22769/habtf-consensus-1.pdf
Fertilizer
Most fertilizer enters bodies of water through dumping or natural agricultural runoff. Fertilizer contains nitrogen and/or phosphorus, which aids immensely in plant growth - so much so, that it is almost necessary for agriculture in Florida.[1] However, when these toxins reach bodies of water, they become nuisances. They increase the rates of harmful algae growth, which end up sitting on top of the water, blocking sunlight from entering, and completely throwing off the entire ecosystem underwater. The algae also release harmful toxins in the air and water, eventually killing large numbers of marine life, all causing public health concerns.[2]
As much as this sounds like an environmental, wildlife problem, it affects humans just as adversely as marine life. In 2019, a study was conducted that found 187 out of 261 Florida beaches were deemed ‘unswimmable’ for at least one day due to this pollution.[3] Fertilizers, while not the sole problem in this complex equation, carry contents that play a very substantial role in catalyzing algal growth and we must lessen their detrimental environmental impact.
It is incredibly vital to the health and wellbeing of marine and human life around the coast that levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizer are properly regulated. There must be accountability for violators of these vital restrictions.
[2]https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/harmful-algal-blooms
So, What Can We Do?!
By chapter 576, section 111 of the Florida statutes, the Commissioner of Agriculture has the power to issue “a stop-sale, stop-use, removal, or hold order, until (fertilizer) compliance has been met…” This section allows the Commissioner to issue violators - individuals and companies alike - an outright halt of the sale and use of the fertilizer in violation of Florida standards.
By chapter 576, section 122 of the Florida statutes, the Commissioner of Agriculture has the power to seize any out-of-compliance fertilizers, bring violator(s) to court, and the fertilizer must either be brought to standards or disposed of all together. This section allows the Commissioner to pursue the individuals responsible for agricultural, aquacultural, and environmental damage across the state, ensuring a more sustainable, clean future is on the horizon.
Past Commissioners of Agriculture have been successful at drawing bipartisan support for this issue, getting Governor DeSantis to put millions into the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s fight against Red Tide and Biscayne Bay clean-up projects.[1] However, there is still much work to be done.
Opposition groups mention that phosphorus and nitrogen in fertilizer are necessary for Florida’s agriculture to continue thriving - which is why there is a limit, and not an outright ban. It is well understood that phosphorus and nitrogen-infused fertilizers are quite necessary for Florida, a historically agriculturally-driven state, but must be carefully used in conscious ways. There are many moving parts to this problem; however, it cannot be denied that phosphorus and nitrogen levels must have a limit, as they are proven to nourish the algal blooms that wreak more and more havoc across the state as time goes on. The department will also work closely with producers in order to ensure that our farmers are not damaged by this regulation.
[1]https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/state-action/red-tide-task-force