Wes Wolfe
It’s like the first day of school as the Senate Agriculture Committee met for the first time for this Legislative Session. Senators laid out the priorities of their respective silos, staking out areas of debate before the business of the committee starts.
Chairman Jay Collins, a Hillsborough County Republican, laid out the dramatic drop in Florida’s citrus crop.
“We have to right-size that, right,” Collins said. “If we don’t keep our food product coming from the state of Florida, and revitalize and grow, we’re missing the mark. My approach to all this is to stabilize our … ag culture, revitalize it and then ultimately grow it, working with (Agriculture Commissioner) Wilton Simpson and his office, and everybody else across the state.
“If we don’t have food, we don’t have people, right? Ag is an intricate, detailed and important part of our community.”
Hurricane Ian, he noted, affected more than 60% of the state’s grazing land.
“We have to stabilize those farmers who lost so much, whether it was a cattleman, dairy farmer, citrus, strawberries — whoever else was affected,” Collins said.
Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman pointed out that Palm Beach County is the “winter vegetable capital,” with a significant sugar cane industry.
“Those are always my concerns — making sure that our agriculture has the tools they need to be successful,” Berman said. “I know we’ve had some issues with the hurricane affecting agriculture, so I would like to address that and any issues regarding (it).”
She said she was also interested in using the power of the committee to take on things like citrus greening.
Fort Pierce Republican Sen. Erin Grall talked of how growing up with the smell of orange blossoms on the wind was an experience for her, but one lost on the present generation of children.
“Anything that we can do to support our farming industry, our citrus industry,” Grall said. “I think agriculture is a national security problem, and concern for us, if we do not have a robust farming industry, agriculture industry.”
Pivoting from citrus, Melbourne Republican Sen. Debbie Mayfield noted cattle farming was a priority in her district, and commercial fishing and potato farming shouldn’t be forgotten, either.
A former Chairman of the committee, St. Petersburg Democratic Sen. Darryl Rouson said he was concerned about fairness in the awarding of medical marijuana licenses.
“With the current award, the score is 22-1 in terms of African-American ownership,” Rouson said. “We need to get these licenses done; very shortly the score could be 44-1 with the second tranche of licenses coming out. There’s a significant part of the agricultural community that needs to be respected.”
He intends to expand work already accomplished with urban agriculture legislation, along with expanding sustainable farming in urban cores statewide in order to help combat food insecurity.
In the Panhandle, Republican Sen. Corey Simon will have an eye out for the shellfish industry.
“We want to make sure we’re showing reverence to the work that they do, the importance of that work, and making sure we’re not losing sight of our … oyster farmers, as well,” Simon said.
Then, there’s the relationship between agriculture and conservation.
“They have so much more in common than we realize in how much has been done to really preserve the wildlife corridor,” said Senate President Pro Tem Dennis Baxley, a Lady Lake Republican.
Berman added that she hoped resource use and sustainability would be a topic of conversation in the coming months.
