Alfie Oakes

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Alfie Oakes
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Delaware City, Delaware, U.S.
Occupation Template:Hlist
Spouse Deanne Dilger Oakes[1]

Francis Alfred "Alfie" Oakes (born June 16, 1968)[1] is an American farmer, businessman, and politician from Southwest Florida. He is the founder and CEO of Oakes Farms, an agribusiness based in Immokalee, Florida which produces, packages, distributes, and sells fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural products. He also owns Fruit Dynamics and Food & Thought.[2][3] Alfie Oakes represents Collier County as a State Committeeman for the Republican Party of Florida. He is an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and critic of Black Lives Matter, the media, and the government's handling of COVID-19, causing him to receive significant criticism and support from the media and community.

Early life

Alfie Oakes was born in Delaware City, Delaware on June 16, 1968.[1] Alfie relocated to Florida with his family when he was a child. Alfie became involved in his family's produce business at age five and started his first agribusiness at age 18, planting and selling tomatoes, strawberries, and zucchini. When his crops were destroyed by a freeze in 1989, he began importing tomatoes from Honduras. His early business ventures failed despite raising nearly $1,000,000 USD, which Alfie attributes to inexperience, so he relocated to Western Texas to sell watermelons.[4] Alfie Oakes attended North Fort Myers High School.[1]

Oakes Farms

Alfie Oakes returned to Florida to plant cucumbers on 40 acres of leased land in Punta Gorda, and he used the profits from that operation to create Oakes Farms Market in Naples along with his father Frank Oakes in 1994. His father left the company to open his own organic farm and store in 2005.[5] Oakes Farms expanded into aquaculture in 2014 and added egg producing chickens in 2015.[2] Oakes Farms opened a 74,000-square-foot supermarket named Seed To Table in December 2019.[6]

Politics

Alfie Oakes was elected to represent Collier County as a State Committeeman for the Republican Party of Florida in 2020.[7] His political opinions have been mentioned in the press numerous times.

Oakes is critical of governmental response to COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and George Floyd, and his comments about those subjects have sparked protests both in support and opposition.[8][9] Under pressure from protestors, two public school districts severed ties with his business, a move that Oakes is challenging in court.[10][11][12] His business did not comply with Collier County's mask requirements in response to COVID-19, which led to legal battles between his business and the county government.[13]

2020 Election

Alfie Oakes is an outspokenly loyal supporter of Donald J. Trump's presidency. During the 2020 United States presidential election. Oakes hosted numerous events supporting President Trump's re-election at his Seed To Table store in North Naples[14] and helped organize a group of 100 local protestors to travel to the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,[15] speaking positively of the protest afterward.[16] Alfie Oakes also endorsed African American Republican Byron Donalds' congressional election and erected signs promoting his candidacy at his Seed To Table store.[17]

Undocumented workers

In 2014, Fruit Dynamics was raided by the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud, resulting 105 undocumented workers being arrested for workers’ compensation fraud and criminal use of personal identification. Alfie Oakes denied knowledge of the workers' undocumented status, but the company offered to post bail for the workers to be released from jail.[3] According to immigration advocacy groups, the raid was the largest in Florida history at the time. Many of those arrested were admitted to pretrial diversion programs.[18] In 2016, Alfie Oakes told CBS News "Forty to 80 percent can be undocumented on any given day, and I can tell you, if we were to lose 40 to 80 percent of our workforce, we would be crippled here."[19]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Alfie Oakes Facebook Profile. Facebook. Retrieved on 2020-07-18.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Our History. Oakes Farms. Retrieved on 2020-07-18.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "State agency raids business related to Oakes Farms", Naples Daily News, Gannett, 2014-07-17. Retrieved on 2021-07-14. 
  4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Alfie Oakes Growing his business from the ground up
  5. ↑ Fletcher, June. "Alfie Oakes: Growing his business from the ground up", Naples Dailey News, Gannett, 2016-03-28. Retrieved on 2020-11-19. 
  6. ↑ "Oakes Farms’ Seed to Table Market opens in North Naples", Florida Weekly, Florida Media Group LLC, 2021-12-19. Retrieved on 2021-07-14. 
  7. ↑ Brent Batten. "Brent Batten: State committee races prove old adage about publicity", Naples Daily News, 2020-08-20. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  8. ↑ Brent Batten. "Brent Batten: State committee races prove old adage about publicity", Naples Daily News, 2020-08-20. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  9. ↑ Jacob Ogles (2020-08-18). Loyalty to Donald Trump key issue in GOP state committee races in SWFL. Floridapolitics.com. Peter Schorsch. Retrieved on 2021-08-06.
  10. ↑ Tamica Jean-Charles. "Protestors spar after Oakes Farms owner calls George Floyd “a disgraceful career criminal”", South Florida Media Network, Florida International University, 2020-06-15. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  11. ↑ Taylor Smith. "Alfie Oakes, Oakes Farms sues School District of Lee County for $50M", WINK-TV, Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, 2020-07-09. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  12. ↑ "Alfie Oakes scores legal victory against School District of Lee County", WINK-TV, Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, 2021-02-17. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  13. ↑ Laura Layden. "Federal judge dismisses parts of lawsuit challenging Collier County's mask order", Naples Daily News, 2020-11-13. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  14. ↑ Seed To Table Events. Seed To Table official page. Retrieved on 2021-08-06.
  15. ↑ Jane Monreal. "100 Locals head to D.C. to protest certification of Biden as President", WFTX-TVpublisher=E. W. Scripps Company, 2021-01-06. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  16. ↑ Thaddeus Mast. "Collier County business owner calls D.C. trip to Trump protests 'amazing,' surrounded by 'great Americans'", Naples Daily News, 2021-01-07. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  17. ↑ Shari Armstrong. "Campaign signs of two black candidates defaced", WFTX-TV, E. W. Scripps Company, 2020-08-09. Retrieved on 2021-08-06. 
  18. ↑ "Prosecutors agree to deferred prosecution for undocumented workers arrested in Oakes Farms raid", Naples Daily News, Gannett, 2014-10-06. Retrieved on 2021-07-14. 
  19. ↑ Ines Novacic (2016-11-02). Undocumented farmworker families face uncertain fate. CBS News. Retrieved on 2021-07-14.

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