HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A small berry is causing quite the stir in Florida with recent incidents of people illegally harvesting them. They’re called saw palmetto berries.
“We have to literally patrol our fences daily, if not multiple times daily,” said Joe Sumner, the owner of Sumner Cattle Company in Hillsborough County.
Life on the farm means long days and lots of hard work, which also has its challenges.
“A lot of times we’ll end up getting calls from the sheriff’s department in the middle of the night saying our cattle are on the side of the road,” said Sumner. “We get there and investigate, and somebody’s cut the fence.”
But he said when people cut the fence, they’re not actually interested in his cattle. They’re after saw palmetto berries.
Sumner doesn’t sell them; instead, they grow naturally on his farm.
According to the University of Florida, the small berries are an important food source for certain wildlife, and they’re commonly harvested for medicinal purposes.
Why would people want the berries? Local leaders point out they can be worth a lot of money.
Just last week, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office arrested two people for illegally harvesting 800 pounds of saw palmetto berries, and recently, FWC said their officers recovered over 10,000 pounds of these illegally harvested berries in Palm Beach County, arresting seven people.
“The agricultural community plays such an important role in Hillsborough County and really all over the entire state of Florida, specifically to our economy,” said Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez. “Did you know that we have, just in Hillsborough County alone, over 3,000 farms? Most of which are actually family owned.”
Now there are new requirements and penalties for those who don’t follow the law.
“As of July 1, it is a third-degree felony to unlawfully harvest saw palmetto berries without authorization of the owner of the property, so now it’s a third-degree felony punishable up to five years in prison,” said Anthony Collins with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
It’s welcome news to folks like Sumner to help hold people accountable for their actions.
“It makes our life a lot easier,” said Sumner.
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