Florida’s agritourism statutes, Sections 570.85 through 570.89 of the Florida Statutes, give farm operators two meaningful protections: immunity from lawsuits over injuries caused by the inherent risks of farm activities, and a guarantee that inviting the public onto a bona fide farm won’t cost the land its agricultural tax classification. Both protections are conditional. The liability shield only applies if you post the statute’s warning signs at the entrance and at every activity site, and include the same warning verbatim in any written contract with a participant. Miss those steps and the immunity disappears.
What Counts as Agritourism
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 In practice, that pulls in U-pick fields, corn mazes, hayrides, farm tours, beekeeping demonstrations, livestock interactions, seasonal festivals, and vineyard tastings, as long as they happen on land actively used for agriculture.
Two limits are worth understanding before you rely on the statutes. The activity must be consistent with a bona fide farm, so a concert venue or amusement ride placed on farmland doesn’t qualify just because there’s a pasture next door. And the definition specifically excludes building new structures “intended primarily to house, shelter, transport, or otherwise accommodate members of the general public.” An event barn used for farm dinners fits. A hotel built on farmland to trade on the agritourism label does not.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions
One detail catches operators by surprise: the definition applies whether or not visitors pay. Free farm tours and paid U-pick fall under the same framework, and both carry the same signage and contract requirements.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions
The Liability Shield Under 570.88
Section 570.88 is the core protection. An agritourism operator, their employees, and the underlying landowner are all shielded from liability for a participant’s injury, death, or property loss when the harm results from the inherent risks of agritourism activities. That immunity only applies, however, if the operator has posted the required warning signs and included the required contract language under Section 570.89.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.88 – Liability
The statute defines inherent risks broadly. Ground and subsurface conditions, natural features of land and water, the behavior of wild or domestic animals, and the ordinary hazards of farm equipment and structures all fall inside the definition. So does a visitor’s own potential negligence, such as ignoring safety instructions or failing to exercise reasonable caution.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.86 – Definitions
There are two hard limits on the shield. An operator loses immunity for gross negligence or willful and wanton disregard for a participant’s safety that proximately causes the injury, and for intentionally injuring a participant.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.88 – Liability The line between ordinary negligence and gross negligence carries real weight here. A visitor who trips on uneven ground in a pumpkin patch has met an inherent risk. An operator who knows a wooden footbridge is rotting and does nothing about it is likely on the gross negligence side of that line, and the statute strips the protection entirely in that case.
Signs and Contract Language Under 570.89
The protections under 570.88 are worthless without compliance with 570.89. The statute is direct: failure to comply “prevents an agritourism operator…from invoking the privileges of immunity.”3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification This is where operators most often fall short.
Sign Requirements
Warning signs must be posted and maintained at two kinds of locations: the entrance to the agritourism site, and the location of each individual agritourism activity. The signs must use black letters 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 of those areas in addition to the entrance sign.
The statute prescribes the exact warning language. In substance, it 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 conditions of land, equipment, and animals as well as the visitor’s own possible negligence, and that the visitor assumes the risk of participating. The precise wording appears in Section 570.89(2), and operators should reproduce it verbatim rather than paraphrase.3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification
Written Contract Requirements
Signs are only half of it. Any written contract between an operator and a participant for professional services, instruction, or equipment rental must include the same warning in clearly readable print, whether the contracted activity happens on or off the agritourism site.3Justia Law. Florida Statutes 570.89 – Posting and Notification If you rent horseback riding equipment or run guided tours under a signed agreement, that agreement carries the statutory warning language.
Keeping Your Agricultural Land Classification
The second major protection sits in Section 570.87. A county property appraiser cannot deny or revoke your agricultural classification under the greenbelt rules 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, so long as the structure is an integral part of the agricultural operation.4Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 570.87 – Agritourism Participation Impact on Land Classification
The catch is on the buildings themselves. The land underneath an agritourism-related structure keeps its agricultural assessment, but the buildings, structures, and other improvements are assessed at their full just value and added on top. An event barn won’t cost you the greenbelt on the surrounding land, but the barn itself is 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, you have to apply with the county property appraiser by March 1 each year. The appraiser weighs factors like how long the land has been farmed, whether use has been continuous, the purchase price, the size relative to the agricultural use, and whether you’re caring 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 that year, though a late application window opens after the appraiser mails the annual notice.
What the Agritourism Statutes Do Not Cover
Sections 570.85 through 570.89 are a liability shield and a land classification protection. They sit on top of every other regulatory obligation a farm business carries, and they don’t displace any of them.
Food sales are the clearest example. Florida’s cottage food law under Section 500.80 lets small producers sell certain homemade products without a food establishment permit, provided annual gross sales stay at or below $250,000 and every product is prepackaged with a label showing the operation’s name and address, product name, ingredients in descending order by weight, net weight or volume, allergen information, and the statement: “Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida’s food safety regulations.”6Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 500.80 – Cottage Food Operations Farm-to-table dinners, on-site cafes, and prepared food service at events generally need a food establishment permit from FDACS. Wine tastings involve separate beverage licensing through the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. None of this is waived by the agritourism statutes.
Workers’ compensation follows its own thresholds. Agricultural employers must carry coverage with 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 season or strawberry harvest can cross the seasonal trigger faster than operators expect.
Federal wage and hour law is another gap. The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts agricultural employees from overtime, but the exemption is narrower than most operators realize. Work outside the FLSA’s definitions of primary agriculture (cultivation, harvesting, raising livestock) and secondary agriculture (practices performed by a farmer on a farm incidental to farming) is not agricultural employment under the Act, wherever it takes place. An employee running a gift shop, staffing a ticketing booth, or operating a commercial kitchen for farm dinners may not qualify. Exempt status is assessed workweek by workweek, so a farmhand who harvests Monday through Wednesday and then runs the corn maze Thursday through Saturday needs each week evaluated on its own.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 12 – Agricultural Employment Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Americans with Disabilities Act obligations apply to agritourism operations as places of public accommodation. Service animals, defined under the ADA as dogs individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities, must generally be allowed in all areas open to the public, including food service areas, even when state or local health codes would prohibit animals. Staff may only ask whether the dog is a service animal required because of a disability and what task it has been trained to perform. Documentation and demonstrations cannot be required. Allergies and fear of dogs are not valid grounds for denial. Removal is only permitted if the dog is out of control and the handler won’t correct it, or if the dog is not housebroken.9ADA.gov. ADA Requirements – Service Animals Emotional support animals do not qualify as service animals.
Finally, the statutory immunity is not insurance. It doesn’t cover claims of gross negligence or intentional harm, it doesn’t cover property damage to your own facilities, and it doesn’t cover employee injuries. Commercial general liability coverage handles risks the statute doesn’t reach, and operators with higher-risk activities like horseback riding or large-scale events typically need additional coverage beyond a standard policy.
FDACS’s Role in Agritourism
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services plays a promotional role, not an enforcement one. Under Section 570.85, FDACS may provide marketing advice, technical expertise, promotional support, and product development assistance to organizations working on agritourism initiatives in rural and urban communities.10The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 570.85 – Agritourism There is no agritourism permit and no agritourism-specific inspection program. FDACS still enforces food establishment permitting for operations beyond cottage food, and its Bureau of Compliance Monitoring inspects for pesticide-related requirements. Local health, safety, and building code enforcement continues to run through county and municipal agencies. The agritourism statutes offer a liability shield and a land classification protection layered on top of every other rule that already applies to the farm.