Plant City, Fla.-Plant City has an option to purchase the old Gro-Mor fertilizer plant, one of the city’s oldest businesses, which shut down recently after nearly 90 years in business, for approximately $680,000 as part of a redevelopment program. The city has been buying property over 85 acres in the midtown spread, which is a mostly commercial and industrial area south of the historic downtown district. With Gro-Mor, the city is waiting for an environmental study before it decides on a closing, apparently because some fertilizer groundwater pollution was detected from the plant. Jim McDaniel, community service director, told Green Markets, “Once we clean up the area, we’ll request proposals from developers.” McDaniel said the plant closed down because the market diminished and farmers weren’t using the fertilizer Gro-Mor was selling. When the city announced its plans in January to buy the Gro-Mor building, the owners said they intended to relocate the business and sell seeds instead of fertilizer. Gro-Mor in Plant City was affiliated with Gro-Mor Plant Food Co. of Leola, Pa., which was established in 1983 to manufacture and market high quality liquid plant food for use in modern production agriculture. Gro-Mor now claims to provide tens of thousands of gallons of starter fertilizer and foliar feeding fertilizer to customers throughout the northeast and into Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, and Tennessee.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain