Advocating for Agriculture for all of Florida

Food security is national security. We work with our grassroots members to support policy that benefits all Floridians and protects our nation’s food supply. Farm Bill Federal Milk Marketing Order Reform Florida Farm Bill.

Farm Bill

The farm bill’s impact extends well beyond the farm by protecting our nation’s food supply, providing access to nutrition for families facing hunger, advancing conservation efforts and spurring innovation through agricultural research. Farm Bill

Florida Farm Bill – Tripp Hunter

Elimination of Supplemental Pesticide Fee

We helped secure an annual $2 million reduction on pesticide fees.

Right to Farm Bill

We helped pass a bill preserving Florida’s agricultural heritage and modernizing Florida’s Right to Farm Act which regulates agriculture throughout the state of Florida.

Florida agriculture depends on a skilled, reliable workforce to help grow a safe, healthy and affordable food supply. We advocate for modernized legislation to deliver the certainty farmers need to produce the food supply our nation depends upon. Agricultural Labor E-Verify.

Reliable labor in agriculture allows farmers and ranchers to efficiently and effectively produce the food and other agricultural products that feed and support communities and economies around the world.  We need reform to our guestworker visa program that provides security to farmers and their employees.
Agricultural Labor
E-Verify

Agricultural Certification

We helped pass a bill that recognizes the critical need for agricultural careers in the state and provides a path for the approval of more agricultural certifications for students.

Agricultural trade is critical to our national economy and to the economic sustainability of family farms and ranches, but non-scientific trade barriers and tariffs restrict farmers’ ability to compete in global markets.
USMCA
Buying American Cotton Incentive Program – Maddie

EUDR

European Union Deforestation Regulation, adopted in 2023, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss by boosting the consumption of ‘deforestation-free’ products and by reducing the EU’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation.

The rules are designed to:

• Ensure that products consumed in the EU do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation in the EU or globally
• Cut carbon emissions linked to EU consumption and production of the covered commodities by at least 32 million tonnes per year
• Address deforestation driven by agricultural expansion and forest degradation linked to the commodities in scope

The main driver of deforestation is the expansion of agricultural land linked to the production of commodities like cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, rubber, and some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tires, or furniture. As a major economy and consumer of these commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation, the EU is partly responsible for this problem and it wants to lead the way to solving it.

Under the Regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.  EUDR

Agricultural trade is critical to our national economy and to the economic sustainability of family farms and ranches, but non-scientific trade barriers and tariffs restrict farmers’ ability to compete in global markets. USMCA Buying American Cotton Incentive Program.

Covered Farm Vehicle Certification Available

Healthier America Regenerative Agriculture Safe Pesticide Use.

Healthier America
Regenerative Agriculture
Safe Pesticide Use

 – combine these three under what AFBF has in Healthier America

Estate Taxes – get the latest from Lance; link
2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs – get the latest from Lance; link
Agricultural Sales Tax Exemption Certificates (LINK TO: Agricultural Sales Tax Exemptions: We helped save farmers and ranchers more than $2.3 million in tax exemptions for prescription and non-prescription animal health products used for poultry and livestock.  Exemptions include, but not limited to antiseptics, cotton and gauze for bandages, lotions, vaccines, vitamins, worm remedies and aquaculture health products. View  tax exemption )certificates and tax information publications (TIP). – Keep these!
Florida Farm Tax Exempt Agricultural Materials (TEAM) – Tripp; link
Right to Farm – Tripp
Greenbelt Protection (Statute 93.461) – something from Curt?; link?

Smart tax policy protects family farms from burdensome estate taxes and rising costs, strengthening rural communities and food security. 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Agricultural Sales Tax Exemption Certificates Florida Farm Tax Exempt Agricultural Materials (TEAM) Right to Farm.

Agricultural Sales Tax Exemptions

We helped save farmers and ranchers more than $2.3 million in tax exemptions for prescription and non-prescription animal health products used for poultry and livestock.  Exemptions include, but not limited to antiseptics, cotton and gauze for bandages, lotions, vaccines, vitamins, worm remedies and aquaculture health products.

View  tax exemption certificates and tax information publications (TIP).

Sales Tax Exception For Farm Equipment

We helped save Florida farmers and ranchers an estimated $13 million in state and local taxes each year. The substantial tax break savings includes elimination of sales tax on parts and repairs for farm equipment, irrigation equipment and farm trailers.

Greenbelt Protection

We helped prevent local governments from removing the agricultural assessment on land being used for bona fide agricultural purposes.

Agriculture Regulatory Reform
Conservation Compliance
Waters of the United States

Endangered Species Act: The Endangered Species Act establishes protections for fish, wildlife, and plants that are listed as threatened or endangered; provides for adding species to and removing them from the list of threatened and endangered species, and for preparing and implementing plans for their recovery; provides for interagency cooperation to avoid take of listed species and for issuing permits for otherwise prohibited activities; provides for cooperation with States, including authorization of financial assistance; and implements the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The Endangered Species Act

Pesticide Applicator Certification & Licensing (FDACs)

Agriculture Regulatory Reform Conservation Compliance Pesticide Applicator Certification & Licensing (FDACs) Waters of the United States The Endangered Species Act Conservation Compliance.

Duplication of Regulations

We helped amend the Ag Lands and Practices Act to prevent local governments from assessing duplicate regulations and fees on farms regulated at the state or federal level.

Endangered Species Act Workplan

In 1972, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) was established under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under FIFRA, EPA is required to maintain compliance standards with the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States. The Endangered Species Act (ESA), established in 1973, functions to protect threatened or endangered species and their critical habitats from extinction. This is done through listing and delisting vulnerable species, implementation of recovery plans, and interagency consultations between EPA, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

To comply with their legal obligations under FIFRA and ESA, EPA has published the Endangered Species Act Workplan, which has guided EPA in drafting “Strategy” documents for the main groups of pesticides (herbicides, rodenticides, insecticides, and fungicides [to be published]). These Strategies are designed to minimize any ecological impacts of pesticides and/or prevent adverse effects on federally endangered and threatened (listed) species and their habitats.

Under the Strategies, pesticide product labels may now require producers to use standard mitigation practices, which are awarded through a point system, to apply certain products. Labels may now also indicate the need to refer to Bulletins Live! Two (BLT), if further mitigations, beyond the standard ones printed on the physical label, are required. The qualifying mitigation practices are provided via a “mitigation menu” and will be required in varying capacities if your field is within a “Pesticide Use Limitation Area” (PULA). PULAs are intended to identify specific, vulnerable areas where the use of pesticides may adversely affect endangered species, their habitat, or key species of their diet. EPA is working toward refining the PULA maps for the highest level of accuracy.

Bulletins Live! Two Website (PULA Maps)

EPA’s Workplan to Protect Endangered and Threatened Species from Pesticides

EPA’s Mitigation Menu (Mitigation Points)

EPA County Mitigation Relief Points – March 2026

EPA Pesticide App for Label Mitigations (PALM) – Runoff/Erosion and Spray Drift Calculators

Sustainability in Agriculture (OR this page includes info on the below)

Carbon Markets: Agriculture can play a role in offsetting emissions beyond the farm gate. From climate-smart farming practices to voluntary management of forests, grasslands, wetlands and croplands, farmers are not only reducing their footprint, but also are actively absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. The demand for carbon offsets from agriculture has grown significantly in recent years, but the process is still confusing and cumbersome, which then limits farmers’, ranchers’ and foresters’ participation. Often, farmers who want to participate have to hire private parties to help them adopt the right conservation practices and verify that certain processes and protocols were followed in implementing those practices. As these markets are being developed, Farm Bureau is working closely with industry partners and lawmakers to identify solutions to ensure these markets are voluntary and economically viable for farmers and ranchers and that they go hand-in-hand with climate-smart practices in place on the farm. Carbon Credits and Ecosystem Services
Rural & Family Lands Protection Program
This Farm CARES

Water Issues.

Long-Term Water Policy Plan

We helped pass SB 552, a comprehensive and long-term water policy plan to protect, preserve and restore Florida’s natural resources, while providing adequate water to meet the needs of agricultural producers, municipalities and consumers. This legislation is the first of its kind for Florida and is responsible for several improvements to state laws impacting state springs and water quality.

Water Policy

We helped prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from overstepping its regulatory duties by passing legislation that protected our objective of a state-run nutrient program to keep Florida’s waterways clean.

This Farm CARES Rural & Family Lands Protection Program Pollution Notification Everglades Restoration Long-Term Water Policy Plan.

Pollution Notification

We helped clarify reporting procedures for pollution events. All events must be reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection who must notify the public within 24 hours after a pollution event has occurred.

Everglade Restoration

We protected farmland within the Everglades Agricultural Area and reduced the total cost to build the water storage reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee from $4 billion to $800 million.

(Cattle Photo)
New World Screw Worm