Meatball Ron is tanking Florida's economy, and the agriculture sector is really pissed.
Agriculture property owners in Florida lost out on millions of dollars in land conservation deals for the next fiscal year when Gov. Ron DeSantis recently vetoed funding for the
Rural and Family Lands Protection Program.
"I'm puzzled and perplexed,” said
Dean Saunders, a former state legislator who's now in real estate, brokering deals through the land acquisition trust fund.
He said he doesn't understand why DeSantis vetoed the $100 million for agriculture conservation easements, which
was a priority of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
Pressure to develop
"Our agricultural lands, particularly, are targets of conversion — conversions to development, i.e., houses, or solar farms,” Saunders said.
There's over 20 million acres of the state either in agriculture or timber, according to Saunders. But he said there are more than 1,100 people a day moving to Florida, putting “immense pressure” on these land owners to sell to developers.
Florida's citrus industry has less than half the acreage it had at its peak, Saunders added, meaning that less than 400,000 acres of producing citrus land is left across the state.
"Hillsborough County, Palm Beach County, Orange County … Manatee County, those are all areas where you have a lot of agricultural production, which also have tremendous growth pressure from housing developments. And it's where people want to live. They want to live in Central and South Florida … so, it is important to protect those working landscapes,” he said.
Saunders also wondered what kind of a message DeSantis is sending to the agriculture community as he runs for president in 2024.
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