Farmers fear rare agricultural land in South Dade will be turned into parking lots

The Everglades ecosystem begins two lots over from a tropical fruit grove owned and managed by Michael Wanek.

Guavas of different backgrounds and colors are grown for retail and distribution in rows, along with other rare tropical fruits like starfruit, bananas and prickly pears. Visitors from around the world come to the far-flung farm in the Redland area of South Dade to pick lychees.

“People from all sorts of cultures — Chinese, Vietnamese, Bangladesh, Middle Easterners — will come and they’ll walk away with hundreds of dollars worth of fruits,” said Wanek, the president of the Redland Homes and Farm Association, a nonprofit.