Fighting for the Soil, the Water, and the Workers

Quinnie Perez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, grew up surrounded by agriculture and the traditions of her family’s culture in Ocala, the Horse Capital of the World. Her deep roots in farm life inspired her commitment to advocate for the rights and protection of farmworkers.

Today, Quinnie works alongside agricultural laborers in the mass cultivation of medical cannabis in Central Florida, where she has witnessed firsthand the challenges immigrant workers face, including housing insecurity and low wages.

She is running for Soil and Water Conservation District 1 to give farmworkers a stronger voice, champion sustainable practices, and ensure that those who nourish our communities are treated with dignity and fairness.

Protecting Water Quality

Here in Orange County, we are facing a rapid population growth. By 2050, we are expected to reach 2 million residents. Central Florida is heading towards a future of water insecurity.

We must use all tools available to ensure that we not only have clean water for consumption and food production, but also for our environment and the wildlife that inhabit.

Flood Resilience

When our streets flood, our drinking water is compromised. Raw sewage backs up into our neighborhoods, and industrial runoff flows into our rivers. Flood resilience isn’t just about keeping your garage dry; it’s about keeping your family’s tap water safe after a natural disaster.

We must invest in natural wetland restoration and smart stormwater drainage now so we don’t spend millions on reactive measures that may be short-term solutions.

We accomplish this by investing in natural and smart solutions that are incorporated into city planning.

Living Wetlands

Healthy wetlands absorb storm surges, slowing down floodwaters.

Bioswales & Rain Gardens

Diverts massive pools of standing stormwater away from roads and foundations.

Wastewater Plant Upgrades

Keep backup sewage from entering residential plumbing during storms.

Outdated city planning is causing skyrocketing flood insurance premiums that are driving families out of their homes. Quinnie plans to advocate for modern green infrastructure to lower neighborhood flood risks, stabilize insurance rates, and protect your single largest asset, your home.

Conservation Education

Quinnie got her start in conservation in high school, serving as the president of her Ecology Club. During this time, we organized camping trips to explore sensitive greenlands like Paynes Prairie, rich with wildlife and plant diversity.

Quinnie used videography content to promote recycling on our high school campus and student activity hours to promote conservation while incorporating entertainment. Having served as a Regional Organizing Director for NextGen America, a national climate action committee focused on youth outreach, she organized throughout the state of Florida in universities and Colleges. She believes conservation education must be taught at a young age for it to truly be effective.

Quinnie has firsthand experience and is committed to working with our public school system here in Orange County to accomplish that.

A Practical Approach to build Out the Program Step-by-Step:

Phase 1: Establish a conversation with the Sustainability Manager for Orange County Public Schools. Any outside curriculum must meet Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards (Benchmark for Excellent Student Thinking) for science and data analysis. Immediate student exposure to watershed models and soil chemistry with zero to little budget impact.

Target audience: PreK-12 in Science Classes

Phase 2: Build collaboration between Agriculture/Biology classes and the on-campus facilities department to identify concerned areas that can be used as test sites for student projects involving flooding and erosion, and other interactive experiments. Some examples are designing and building a native rain garden or bioswale, transforming a campus problem area into a learning space.

Target Audience: Middle School/High School

Phase 3: Form an official extracurricular Envirothon club and integrate regular, seasonal soil testing into the standard annual science curriculum. Sustainable, student-led conservation programming embedded into the school culture

It is important to partner with programs that offer funding for these types of programs. I look forward to partnering with our public schools to help secure regional utility or state environmental protection grants. Many water management districts offer specific “mini-grants” ranging from $500 to $3,000 to cover the explicit costs of native plants, rain barrels, or water-testing kits for public school campuses.

School Board Members have been great advocates for conservation education, but there’s much more that can be done. We need to advocate for more natural plants and plants that thrive in our climate. The naturalization of our public schools’ landscape would reduce maintenance costs across the county.

The reality is that these programs are not always a priority or most funded, and are often left on the sidelines to focus on academic curriculum. We need more conservation education in our schools, and I will advocate for more funding at the state and local levels.