PROUD OF TEENA

Homestead agriculture luminary Martina "Teena" Borek accepted the Florida Woman of the Year in Agriculture this month. Teena serves on FFVA's Board of Directors and as a leader in many other industry organizations. The award, in its 20th year, recognizes women who have made outstanding contributions to Florida agriculture.

Teena Borek didn't grow up in agriculture. Rather, she "fell" into it in her early twenties. Raised in the unspoiled surroundings of a small town in Newfoundland, Teena spent summer vacations visiting her aunt's home in southern Dade County. During one of those summers, she met young Steven Borek, a talented grower and member of an established and respected Homestead farming family. They fell in love, married, and started their own operation, Steven Borek Farms, Inc. in 1975.

For four years, Steven and Teena grew potatoes and seed corn on about 500 rented acres. One day everything changed when Steven died in a tragic truck accident. Teena was left alone to raise her two sons, Steven Jr., who was three at the time, and one-year-old Michael.

"I had no background in it, but I decided I needed to try to continue farming because I knew my husband's dream was to pass the farm on to our sons," Teena said. Steven Senior had managed the farming operation for those four short years, and she had taken care of the boys and the accounting.

Much of Steven Borek Farms suffered severe damage from Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE

Teena says her non-agricultural background actually turned out to be a plus. "Coming from the outside and having accounting skills allows for a whole new perspective," she said. "When someone says you should accept whatever price you get for your vegetables, I say I don't think so. I think I should be paid the cost of production plus a profit." When you don't grow up immersed in a business, she says, you don't accept the things you're supposed to as a given. "Farmers should make a profit on their crops just as any other industry would on what they produce."

That confident attitude helped Teena to not only hang on to the farm, but to see it thrive. Support from the Borek family, the local farming community, TREC (Tropical Research and Education Center) scientists, extension agents, and an outstanding farm team including farm foreman Julian Dahl, she said, all contributed to the success of the operation.

Seed corn became her primary crop, since maintaining the potato machinery of that time was costly and difficult. She grew seed corn for Pioneer in the eighties and then for DeKalb into the 1990s, a decade that brought further challenges. Early in the decade, after both seed corn companies had moved growing operations overseas, Teena began growing sweet corn, tomatoes, beans and specialty crops. Then the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, which brought cheap imports into the country. And in 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed much of the farm and its structures.

Today, the farm grows about 500 acres of sweet corn, beans and specialty tomatoes. Steven handles sweet corn and the beans, and Michael takes care of tomatoes and shipping. Teena oversees production of heirloom tomatoes. "They're my babies. I love them," she said.

AMAZING TOMATOES

Teena's heirloom tomatoes cover a rainbow of colors, sizes and tastes. "They're purple, they're orange, they're yellow, they're pink; some are called zebra, some called banana legs, pineapples - they all look like their names or taste like them," Teena says. Her customers are upscale restaurants and stores in South Florida.

Teena Borek grows heirloom tomatoes in a rainbow of colors and flavors.

"Gardner's Markets is a chain of five high-end, third-generation stores," said Teena. "They're locally owned and support the local growers. Gardner's uses my Teena's Pride heirloom tomatoes exclusively. They feature them" she said. "When you walk through the door in the wintertime, there's a big display - Teena's Pride Heirloom tomatoes." Teena says she grows her miniature and heirloom tomatoes for those stores and restaurants like the internationally known Norman's in Coral Gables.

"The Florida Department of Agriculture marketing team made a promotional movie recently in Norman's kitchen of chef Jeffrey making one of his signature dishes with my heirloom tomatoes," she said. "It was really neat to watch!"

TEENA WILL TRY ANYTHING!

Teena is known for not being afraid of new technology. Hers was one of the first farms in the area to use computers for record keeping.

"Back in the late 1980s, the banks were beginning to ask the small farms for financial papers that really required an accountant's expertise," she said. Although well versed in the skill herself, she wanted to go one better. She enlisted help from the local extension service, and together she and Dr. Joe Dalton perused available computer programs that would streamline accounting procedures. They found a program, "The Terra System," developed by a husband and wife team. "The program actually did the income statements, the balance sheets, the ledgers and the trial balances. It enabled the small grower to present their bank with all the financials the bank required," Teena said. The couple who developed it later sold the product to a computer company that now sells it under the name "The Doane System."

TWO BIG ISSUES

Teena names two issues as being important to her business. "Water is always an issue, but two of the challenges that are in the forefront right now are Senate Bill 1712 and mandatory country of origin labeling," she said.

Teena Borek will accept the Florida Agriculture Woman of the Year Award February 10 at the Florida State Fair.

Senate Bill 1712, also known as the Agricultural Economic Development Act, would have established new property rights for owners of agriculturally exempt land. One of the most controversial elements would have given them the right to develop property to the same density as the land around it if 75 percent or more of the surrounding land was developed or permitted to be developed. Opponents said the bill would have taken control of land use decisions from local governments and led to more development sprawl. The bill was passed, but Governor Bush later vetoed it.

"The reasoning the governor used when he vetoed that was that he didn't want farmers to sell. What he said just wasn't logical," Teena said. "My logic for wanting my land rezoned was so I could stay on the farm longer, but be able to make a timely business decision if I had the opportunity to relocate our farm to a more rural area. I knew what would happen after the houses were built. Building 4,000 houses on the properties surrounding me would add up to about 8,000 or so votes against me when I would have to go through community rezoning," Teena said. She had tried to rezone and was turned down three times by the local community council. Six people spoke against the rezoning of her home, saying they wanted to protect the farmland. She finally had to go before the county commission. "It took over a year to rezone the land. By that time, the piece of farmland I was looking to buy so we could relocate was no longer available," she said.

"If you have a home and you'd like to sell, do you really want your whole neighborhood deciding if you're going to sell it, when you're going to sell it, and who you're going to sell it to?" Teena asked.

She also believes strongly in implementing mandatory country of origin labeling, saying it's very important to her children's future as farmers. "If consumers know they are buying vegetables grown in America, I believe they will pay a premium for those vegetables," Teena said. "They know they are safe. If growers can receive a fair price, my sons can continue to farm. Farm bills have to be paid, and this is impossible if they only get $4.00 for a 25 lb. box of tomatoes that costs $8.00 per box to produce.," she said.

Teena believes that our fresh food supply is a very important part of homeland security. "We follow very strict government rules and regulations on the farm to assure food safety," she said. Those procedures cost money. "Who will be our future growers if our young farmers give up because they cannot receive enough money to even pay their production costs?" she said. "Also, the grocery chains seem to want to pass the costs and responsibilities of all the rules and regulations the government is imposing on them down to the farm."

A small, family farm cannot afford these additional costs, Teena says. "The government is going to have to figure out a way to help these farmers. We can't make up the difference by adding to the sales price. Remember, currently, farmers are price takers, not price makers," she said. "My two sons and other young farmers need a fair market place for their vegetables to enable them to continue the next generation of farmers."

THE THINGS THAT MATTER

When asked what she's most proud of over the years she's run the farm, she said their names are Steven and Michael. "Their dad would be so proud of them," she said. "They're both outstanding individuals each in their own right." Steven, 27, is a skilled mechanic and recently took his final test to become a commercial helicopter pilot. Michael, 26, earned a degree in business administration and international marketing.

The family often visits Teena's family in Newfoundland, most recently last Thanksgiving. She has fond memories of the boys' early vacations. "They were able to go anywhere and do anything they wanted - go to the store by themselves, ride their bikes down the road and not have any worries. No matter where they'd go, there wasn't a stranger in town. Everybody knew them," she said.

Besides travel to Newfoundland, one of Teena's greatest joys is reading. She especially enjoys reading beside a body of water. "I grew up on the water, so I love to be around it," she said. Her favorite author at the moment is Jim Collins, who wrote "Good to Great" and "Built to Last," business books with a twist.

STANDING BEHIND THE NAME

Teena feels strongly about putting her name on her produce. "We want people to know that when we put our vegetables out there that we stand behind them," she said. "And there's no better way to stand behind them than to have your name on the product so people know where to find you, she added.

"I hope the boys continue with that label," she said.