Introduction

Good Management Practices, also called GMPs, are guidelines advising producers how to manage the water, nutrients, and pesticides they use in order to minimize agriculture's impact on the state's natural resources. GMPs were developed as part of the implementation plan of the 1999 Florida Watershed Protection Act that was passed to provide Florida compliance with provisions of the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act (FCWA). GMPs were developed because agricultural activity has been linked to the contamination of watersheds with nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus), pesticides and discharged sediments and water. Because much of the state is built on limestone, which allows water to return relatively unfiltered to the aquifer, pollutants can enter the water supply quickly, endangering humans and ecosystems.