NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla — The Global Food and Farm Festival is in full swing at ECHO Farms, offering hands-on experiences that bring sustainable farming to life.
Fox 4’s North Fort Myers Community Correspondent, Austin Schargorodski, visited the event to see how ECHO aims to turn interactive learning into real-world solutions for hunger.
Visitors pressed sugarcane into juice, ground raw peanut butter, and learned how to grow food in small spaces. Here, farming isn’t just taught – it’s experienced. Chair of the Global Food and Farm Festival, John R. Smith, says it’s a hands-on look at sustainable farming, built on techniques used around the world.
“We learn from farmers around the world, and then we take those learnings and offer those to other people. We’re really a conduit for them,” said Smith.
ECHO uses that knowledge to help communities struggling with food security. Director of ECHO’s North American Regional Impact Center, Grace Ju Miller, says this festival brings those challenges into focus - showing just how much work goes into a single meal.
“One of the things that’s exciting about today is just the eye-opening experience of understanding global needs. I think it’s easy for us in South Florida to get comfortable and know we can just go to Publix and get food, but here we’re learning that it takes work for many people to produce a meal,” said Miller.
And the learning doesn’t stop here. Workshops and in-depth trainings continue through the 21st, digging deeper into seed saving, tropical agriculture, and sustainable farming techniques.
ECHO says it’s all about giving people - locally and globally - the tools to grow their own future.
