How much WDW food does The Land actually produce?

[iheartglaciers]

I went on the Behind the Seeds tour all at week and absolutely loved it. It made me wonder how much food they actually produce for WDW (since they only have a few greenhouses, and I imagine WDW needs a lot of food) and how much real research is done there. Anyone have more insight? Curious if the role of the greenhouses and research labs has stayed constant through the years or has changed. Thanks!

 

[PSUGuy]

One figure I recall from The Land narration is 5,000 lbs of fish per year, probably mostly tilapia.

Bill From PA

 

[Dan Murphy]

I would think that on a percentage basis, it is a very minor component of the total required amount of foods that WDW uses yearly.

 

[lullwater]

At one time a single tomato plant in The Land held the world record for having more than 32,000 tomato’s harvested from it.

 

[randumb0]

there's a large number of greenhouses just outside of animal kingdom

 

[HopperFan]

From Disney in 2014 ... "More than 30 tons of fruits and vegetables grown at The Land pavilion at Epcot are served in Walt Disney World restaurants."

 

[stinkpickle]

From Disney in 2014 ... "More than 30 tons of fruits and vegetables grown at The Land pavilion at Epcot are served in Walt Disney World restaurants."

That's just crazy! I can't eat that much!

 

[FatOldHillbillie]

I call BS on this. I've taken the behind the seeds tour and unless they have a huge farm hiding somewhere there is now way that little showcase is providing any appreciable amount of food to the stores. Also what's with the alligators? I don't remember seeing any gator on the menus.

 

[HopperFan]

I call BS on this. I've taken the behind the seeds tour and unless they have a huge farm hiding somewhere there is now way that little showcase is providing any appreciable amount of food to the stores. Also what's with the alligators? I don't remember seeing any gator on the menus.

That is only 60,000 pounds per year. Some of those fruits and veggies are heavy Compared to a regular farm, hydroponics need less space, are able to grow year round and grows faster - that result in much higher yields.

What I heard is the alligators are there for learning ... that there is such a thing as alligator farms for food ... and they are only babies from a local farm and when they got bigger they went back to the farm. They were gone my last trip.

 

[lullwater]

They were gone my last trip.

The gators were absent in late October.
Assumed the removal was Disney being sensitive to the alligator incident. Hope they return.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

That is only 60,000 pounds per year. Some of those fruits and veggies are heavy Compared to a regular farm, hydroponics need less space, are able to grow year round and grows faster - that result in much higher yields.

What I heard is the alligators are there for learning ... that there is such a thing as alligator farms for food ... and they are only babies from a local farm and when they got bigger they went back to the farm. They were gone my last trip.

I hope those baby alligators learned about living on a gator farm!

 

[HopperFan]

I hope those baby alligators learned about living on a gator farm!

Touché

 

[HopperFan]

The gators were absent in late October.
Assumed the removal was Disney being sensitive to the alligator incident. Hope they return.

Thinking ... I "skipped" Epcot in Oct so I think it was my August trip. We went to use FEA FP+ but it was broken down so we left.

 

[mountdew1]

there's a large number of greenhouses just outside of animal kingdom

Pretty sure this is the horticulture area, and those buildings are used for growing the various flowers, shrubs and topiarys that are used around property, and not for any consumable food.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I call BS on this. I've taken the behind the seeds tour and unless they have a huge farm hiding somewhere there is now way that little showcase is providing any appreciable amount of food to the stores. Also what's with the alligators? I don't remember seeing any gator on the menus.

When I did the tour, our guide referred to the main greenhouse (that the ride goes through) as the "show greenhouse," so I'm assuming the others look and operate very differently.

 

[Micca]

One figure I recall from The Land narration is 5,000 lbs of fish per year, probably mostly tilapia.

Bill From PA

At one time a single tomato plant in The Land held the world record for having more than 32,000 tomato’s harvested from it.

From Disney in 2014 ... "More than 30 tons of fruits and vegetables grown at The Land pavilion at Epcot are served in Walt Disney World restaurants."

Those are some impressive numbers until you start thinking about the enormous amount of food the kitchens at WDW use. They may burn through 30 tons of fruits and vegetables in a matter of weeks. Still it's a cool concept, I'd like to believe that when I'm at Garden Grill that some of the produce was just brought up from downstairs.

 

[DisneynBison]

considering we put about 40,000 lbs of corn on each semi load we haul out and we use smaller trailers than lots of farmers that 60,000 lbs is not really all that much.

 

[WooPigScientist]

considering we put about 40,000 lbs of corn on each semi load we haul out and we use smaller trailers than lots of farmers that 60,000 lbs is not really all that much.

My husband and I were just discussing this. Coincidentally, we ended up making almost 60,000 lbs worth of pumpkins on about 2 acres this year (somewhere north of 10,000 5-lb cannonballs). And 60,000 would probably be around 1 and 1/2 trailer trucks of tomatoes. I needed visuals like that to decide what the weight actually meant. Numbers are hard

So while yes, it's a lot of food, it's a very small percentage of what is used at WDW. And a very small amount compared to commercial operations. Plus, it's been my understanding that some of what they grow is purely ornamental (like Mickey shaped pumpkins for Halloween decor). I'm sure that is included in the total as it is technically food, but it's not actually being used for food purposes.

But, still pretty darn cool that at least some food going to restaurants is grown on site!

 

[IrishNYC]

considering we put about 40,000 lbs of corn on each semi load we haul out and we use smaller trailers than lots of farmers that 60,000 lbs is not really all that much.

My husband and I were just discussing this. Coincidentally, we ended up making almost 60,000 lbs worth of pumpkins on about 2 acres this year (somewhere north of 10,000 5-lb cannonballs). And 60,000 would probably be around 1 and 1/2 trailer trucks of tomatoes. I needed visuals like that to decide what the weight actually meant. Numbers are hard

So while yes, it's a lot of food, it's a very small percentage of what is used at WDW. And a very small amount compared to commercial operations. Plus, it's been my understanding that some of what they grow is purely ornamental (like Mickey shaped pumpkins for Halloween decor). I'm sure that is included in the total as it is technically food, but it's not actually being used for food purposes.

But, still pretty darn cool that at least some food going to restaurants is grown on site!

Thanks for the visuals! It definitely makes it easier to quantify, especially for this city girl.

 

[cyre]

The gators were absent in late October.
Assumed the removal was Disney being sensitive to the alligator incident. Hope they return.

I was there a couple weeks ago- it's a catfish breeding tank now.