Florida’s agritourism statutes, Sections 570.85 through 570.89 of the Florida Statutes, give farm operators two things: immunity from lawsuits over injuries caused by the inherent risks of farm visits, and protection against losing their agricultural property tax classification when they open the gates to the public. Both protections are conditional. You get them only if your operation fits the statutory definition of agritourism, you post the exact warning signs the law prescribes, you include the warning language in any written participant contract, and you avoid gross negligence. Miss any of those, and the shield is gone.
What Counts as Agritourism Under the Statute
Section 570.86 defines an agritourism activity as any agriculture-related activity on a bona fide farm, livestock operation, ranch, or working forest that lets the public participate for recreation, entertainment, or education. The statute names farming, ranching, historical, cultural, ceremonial, training, exhibition, and harvest-your-own activities.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions U-pick fields, corn mazes, hayrides, farm tours, beekeeping demonstrations, livestock interactions, seasonal festivals, and vineyard tastings all fit, provided they happen on land actively used for agriculture.
Two boundaries decide whether an activity actually qualifies. The activity must be consistent with a bona fide farm, so a concert venue or amusement ride placed next to a pasture doesn’t qualify just because the parcel is zoned agricultural. And the statute specifically excludes new construction “intended primarily to house, shelter, transport, or otherwise accommodate members of the general public.”1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions An event barn used for farm dinners is fine. A hotel built on farmland is not.
One detail trips people up: whether visitors pay doesn’t matter. Free farm tours and paid U-pick operations are both agritourism, so the signage requirements and liability protections apply the same way to both.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions
The Liability Shield and Where It Ends
Section 570.88 is the heart of the protection. An agritourism operator, their employees, and the underlying landowner cannot be held liable for a participant’s injury, death, or property loss when the harm results from the inherent risks of agritourism activities.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.88 – Liability
Inherent risks are defined broadly. They include ground and subsurface conditions, natural features of land and water, the behavior of wild and domestic animals, the ordinary dangers of farm equipment and structures, and the visitor’s own potential negligence, such as ignoring safety instructions.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions A visitor who trips on uneven ground in a pumpkin patch has encountered an inherent risk.
The shield has two hard limits. It disappears if the operator commits gross negligence or shows willful or wanton disregard for a participant’s safety that proximately causes the injury, and it disappears if the operator intentionally injures a participant.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.88 – Liability An operator who knows a wooden footbridge is rotting and does nothing is likely in gross negligence territory, which strips the statutory protection.
And none of this applies at all unless the operator has complied with the posting and notification rules in Section 570.89. The statute is blunt: failure to comply “prevents an agritourism operator…from invoking the privileges of immunity.”3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification
Signs and Contracts That Keep the Shield in Place
Where the Signs Have to Go and What They Have to Look Like
Section 570.89 requires warning signs in two places: at the entrance to the agritourism location, and at the site of each agritourism activity. Letters must be black, at least one inch tall, with enough color contrast to be clearly visible.3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification A farm with a petting zoo, a U-pick field, and hayrides needs a sign at each activity in addition to the one at the main entrance.
The statute prescribes the exact warning language. The sign must tell visitors that under Florida law the operator is not liable for injury, death, or property loss resulting from the inherent risks of agritourism, that those risks include dangers related to land, equipment, and animals as well as the visitor’s own potential negligence, and that the visitor assumes the risk of participating. The precise wording appears in Section 570.89(2); reproduce it verbatim rather than paraphrasing.3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification
Contract Language
Any written contract between an operator and a participant for professional services, instruction, or equipment rental must include the same warning language in clearly readable print. This applies whether the contracted activity takes place on or off the agritourism site.3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification Horseback riding rentals and guided tours with signed agreements all need the statutory warning language in the document.
Keeping Your Agricultural Land Classification
The second major concern for farm operators is whether inviting the public could cost them their agricultural tax classification under Section 193.461, the greenbelt exemption that values land by agricultural use rather than market value. Losing it would be financially devastating.
Section 570.87 answers that fear directly. A county property appraiser cannot deny or revoke your agricultural classification solely because you conduct agritourism activities on a bona fide farm. The same protection covers building, altering, or maintaining a nonresidential farm building used for agritourism, as long as the structure is an integral part of the agricultural operation.4Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.87 – Agritourism Participation Impact on Land Classification
There’s an important catch. While the land under an agritourism-related building keeps its agricultural assessment, the building, structures, and other improvements themselves get assessed at full just value and added on top. An event barn won’t cost you your greenbelt classification, but the barn itself will be taxed at fair market value.4Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.87 – Agritourism Participation Impact on Land Classification
To hold the classification in the first place, file an application with your county property appraiser by March 1 each year. The appraiser weighs how long the land has been farmed, whether use has been continuous, the purchase price, the size relative to agricultural use, and whether you’ve made genuine efforts to care for the land according to accepted commercial practices.5The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 193.461 – Agricultural Lands Classification and Assessment Missing March 1 waives the classification for the year, though a late application window opens after the property appraiser mails the annual notice.
What the Agritourism Statutes Do Not Cover
The protections in 570.85 through 570.89 are specific. They are not a general exemption from the other rules that apply to a business open to the public, and operators who assume otherwise end up in trouble on exactly these points.
Food service. Florida’s cottage food law under Section 500.80 lets small producers sell certain prepackaged homemade products without a food establishment permit if annual gross sales stay at or below $250,000 and products carry the required label.6Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 500.80 – Cottage Food Operations Anything beyond that, including on-site cafes, farm-to-table dinners, and prepared food at events, generally requires a food establishment permit from FDACS. Wine tastings bring in separate beverage licensing through the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. The agritourism statutes do not substitute for food safety compliance.
Workers’ compensation. Agricultural employers must carry coverage if they have six or more regular employees, or twelve or more seasonal workers who work more than 30 days during a season or more than 45 days total in the same calendar year.7Florida Department of Financial Services. Coverage Requirements A busy pumpkin or strawberry season with a dozen temporary hires can cross the seasonal threshold fast.
Overtime for non-agricultural work. The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts agricultural employees from overtime, but the definition is narrower than many farm operators realize. Work in a gift shop, a ticketing booth, or a commercial kitchen for farm dinners may not qualify as agriculture under the FLSA, even though it happens on a farm. The Department of Labor specifically warns against “failing to pay overtime to employees whose jobs are related to agriculture but do not meet the definition of agriculture contained in the Act.” Exempt status is assessed workweek by workweek, so a worker who harvests Monday through Wednesday and runs a corn maze Thursday through Saturday may be owed overtime in weeks where the non-agricultural work predominates.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 12 – Agricultural Employment Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
ADA accessibility. Agritourism operations open to the public are places of public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and there’s no agricultural carve-out. That includes physical access to parking, pathways, restrooms, and counters, and it includes service animals. Service animals under the ADA are dogs individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities. Emotional support animals do not qualify. Operators must allow service animals in all areas open to the public, including food service areas, even where state or local health codes would otherwise bar animals. Staff may ask only two questions: whether the dog is a service animal required because of a disability, and what task it is trained to perform. No documentation, no demonstration. The only grounds for removal are a dog that’s out of control with no correction from the handler, or a dog that isn’t housebroken.9ADA.gov. ADA Requirements – Service Animals A working farm where livestock may react to an unfamiliar dog cannot refuse entry on that basis, but can plan routes through animal areas and train staff on managing interactions.
Insurance. The statutory shield is not insurance. It protects against lawsuits over inherent risks, not gross negligence or intentional harm, and it doesn’t cover damage to your own property, employee injuries, or anything the statute doesn’t contemplate. Commercial general liability coverage for an agritourism operation typically runs around $800 per year, varying with activity type, visitor volume, and limits. Higher-risk activities like horseback riding or large events usually need additional riders or separate policies.
What FDACS Does and Doesn’t Do
Section 570.85 gives the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services a promotional role: marketing advice, technical expertise, promotional support, and product development assistance for agritourism initiatives in rural and urban communities.10The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 570.85 – Agritourism FDACS does not conduct agritourism-specific compliance inspections and does not issue agritourism permits. There is no “agritourism license” to apply for.
FDACS does enforce food establishment permitting for operations that serve food beyond the cottage food exemption, and its Bureau of Compliance Monitoring handles pesticide-related inspections. Operators also remain subject to local health, safety, and building code enforcement by county and municipal agencies. The agritourism statutes sit on top of those existing obligations; they do not replace them.