DAVIE, FLORIDA— During a press conference to discuss water conservation and to sign SB 1638, a measure that provides $150 million in upgrades and repairs the South and Central Florida Water Management System, Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked about the ongoing delay by federal lawmakers in proposing, passing the all-important 2023 Farm Bill.
Yes, that’s the “2023 Farm Bill" that many states rely on to help support farming livelihoods, food production, and overall sustainable food growth and development.
Gov. DeSantis laughed when asked the question, calling the delay a “bad, bad situation.”
Gov. DeSantis, who served 6 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, expressed his doubts about leaving Florida’s agriculture future in “the hands of other people” because he knows that the federal government has always moved at a snail’s pace.
“The federal government is not going to move as fast as us,” said DeSantis.” So what we try to do in Florida is whatever we can do ourselves, we just wanna do it. I don’t want to leave our destiny in the hands of other people.”
DeSantis added that his administration doesn’t “want to be dependent on them (federal government) doing the right thing,” and that he hasn’t asked Washington to bailout the state.
In addition, DeSantis reminded attendees that both Republicans and Democrats were responsible for putting out “grotesque” legislative measures just “12 hours before the vote that nobody reads and then they pass it, and then the citizens are left to pick up the pieces.”
“You just don’t want to be dependent on them doing the right thing,” he concluded.
Since becoming governor, DeSantis has been proactive in addressing the economy-driving agriculture business, and for the most part, made Florida agriculturally independent.
In 2023, then-Congressman DeSantis was one of 12 House Republicans who voted to defeat a pork-ridden Farm Bill that had a heavy fiduciary focus on the Food Stamp program.
The Farm Bill is considered a crucial piece of legislation that helps American farmers, but lawmakers have not been able to come together on passing the bill after the previous measure expired in September 2023.
Rep. Kat Cammack, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, recently focused on how important it was to address agriculture during the upcoming Farm Bill.
"All of us here represent a state that is a massive agricultural state, we have a number two economic driver of agriculture in the state and we have a very critical farm bill we have to advance this year and we are going to get it done,” said Rep. Cammack.
Fellow Floridian, Rep. Darren Soto (D), also recently told The Floridian that he expected the bill to get done something in 2024.
During his first term in office, President Donald Trump put a big emphasis on protecting American farmers, and nudged lawmakers to make sure the Farm Bill was sound and “America First.”
