It was almost 25 years ago that Walt Disney went on television and talked about his dream for an EPCOT Center. EPCOT would be a place where families could go to see people and architecture from other continents collected in one community. Disney also envisioned a Futureworld that would stimulate creative thinking.
At the center of that dream was a community that would be agriculturally self-sufficient, applying the latest state-of-the-art techniques to food and fiber production and environmental beautification.
With a few alterations, that dream is reality today at The Land pavilion at EPCOT Center, which opened in 1982 at Florida's Walt Disney World.
The Land
Although it doesn't provide all of the food and fiber for EPCOT, The Land does showcase some of the latest production techniques in agriculture. It also provides visitors — 8 to 10 million every year — a historical and environmental view of agriculture using classic Disney entertainment technology.
The Land, sponsored by Kraft, is a six-acre complex under one roof that houses restaurants, theaters and the main attraction, the "Listen to the Land" boat ride. Visitors travel through a simulated rain forest, a desert, a prairie and a farm. Then they see large-screen film clips of agricultural production as it is today, including a regiment of John Deere combines harvesting wheat.
The boat, which can carry 2,300 guests per hour, passes through this theatrical part of the trip into five growing areas that include the Aquacell, the Tropic Area, the Desert Area, a Desert Greenhouse and the Creative Area. According to FFA members who have taken the ride, this is the good stuff.
So Much to See
The Tropic area features important tropical food crops, like eggplant, banana, pineapple, coconut and rice. The show also displays lesser known crops with great potential because of their food value and tropical adaptability, such as winged beans and peach palm.
In this greenhouse, grasses such as com and sugar cane are seen inter-cropped with legumes like beans and pigeon pea. In one example, corn supports the climbing beans, which increases the pod production surface. The beans fix aerial nitrogen to enrich the soil — and benefit the corn.
The Aquacell is an environment for raising fish and aquatic animals in high density for food production. The Land's Aquacell is unique because the water is recirculated through a filtration system for water conservation. Species such as the Blue Tilapia, American Eel and Channel Catfish are grown here and many are eventually served in The Land's restaurants.
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