May 2025
By J. Scott Angle, UF/IFAS Senior Vice President
As I thank you for your support for the UF/IFAS legislative agenda this year, I emphasize how important that support was at this political moment.
This year’s legislative session started with a call from our Senate president for a rural renaissance. That presented opportunity for two organizations who work year after year toward such a renaissance: UF/IFAS and the Florida Farm Bureau Federation.
That’s why it was so important for you to be in Tallahassee this year. My thanks go out to the hundreds of you who converged on the Capitol in March to participate in Farm Bureau Day and made support for UF/IFAS and our agricultural communities a central part of your message.
To see so many of you at the Legislative Briefing Breakfast really brought home for me that no one else can muster the kind of representation you can. You came from every corner of the state, from farms that produce everything from avocados to zucchinis.
Your presence made a powerful statement that agriculture’s legislative agenda addresses the needs of people everywhere in Florida. That was a timely message in a year when rural Florida got so much attention.
Regardless of what particular legislation passed this year, UF/IFAS and FFBF will continue to be active participants in bringing about a rural renaissance. Together we’ll be supporting an industry that creates jobs far from cities, generates revenue for local governments with modest budgets, and feeds families.
We were fortunate to have a farmer as a legislative leader with the platform to highlight parts of Florida that too often get overlooked.
But term limits mean legislative leaders change frequently. UF/IFAS and FFBF will continue to work together for many sessions to come under many House speakers and Senate presidents to come. We’re in this together and for the long haul.
That so many of you give up time at your paid jobs producing food, feed and fiber to bring your voice to Tallahassee means a lot to UF/IFAS and to the communities you live in, work in, and serve in.
The turnout demonstrated that President Smith and his team have done a great job in communicating the importance of the work that has to be done beyond the farm gate. What happens in Tallahassee can affect your farm as much as the weather or the price of inputs or the size of your harvest.
UF/IFAS and FFBF have a very special partnership on which the very success of Florida agriculture depends.
To keep Florida one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, we need science and innovation. Thanks for helping us get the resources to help you help rural Florida.
J.Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
[email protected]
@IFAS_VP