FL Fert & Ag Chem Assoc Last Call for Schol Golf Sponsors
The Scholarship Board of the Florida Fertilizer and Agri-Chemical Association (FFAA) is working hard to make this year’s golf tourney the best ever. It is scheduled for Thursday May 1, 2008 at Lake Wales Country Club. If you’re involved in Florida agriculture in any way, we hope you’ll get involved with a team or at least offer some level of sponsorship, in support of the FFAA Scholarship Fund. PLEASE see the form (pdf file) for information, you can print and fax directly into the FFAA office as directed on the form (pdf file) .
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida’s quest to develop cost-
effective methods of producing fuel ethanol from biomass received a $1 million boost this month, with a grant package for research aimed at increasing the amount of fermentable sugar obtained from sugarcane stalks and leaves. 
It is a growing reality that major cuts to IFAS will impact far more than just agriculture industries in Florida. In these reports, comments from Florida Pest Control President/CEO Dempsey “D.R.” Sapp Jr, who is in Tallahassee this week as part of a Florida Pest Management Association member delegation.
This report is a brief interview with Senator J D Alexander from Polk County who chairs the Ag Committee in the Florida Senate. Speaking with us moments after Thursday’s Ag Committee meeting in the state Capitol, he says it will be an important Session for agriculture and that producers need to get involved in the process. 
In these reports, comments from commodities trader Roger Corrado at I C E Futures U S in New York. He says it’s a historic but sad time as the open outcry system for trading futures contracts is silenced. In the third report posted below, some interesting reflections about how Corrado and others got a start in the business.
In these reports, Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney says south and central Florida could lead the cellulosic ethanol industry and that the federal goverenment is making serious investments to help spur the industry forward. 
Catching up with Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson at this week’s Florida Ag Hall of Fame festivities 
Making a strong statement that the Florida agriculture industry is far from waning, well over a thousand producers and ag industry leaders joined Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson for fellowship and dinner while honoring this year’s four inductees into the industry’s most exclusive club of pioneers. This year’s honors went to (l to r) “Pete” Clemons, Okeechobee; Hugh English, LaBelle; Fritz Stein Jr, Belle Glade & Dr Alto Straughn, Waldo.
Each of this year’s winners were accompanied to the event by dozens of their own local supporters, and hundreds of producers and industry leaders made it a night as well. Southeast AgNet hats are off to these exceptional people who have had so much impact on an industry that is so important to all of us, economically and otherwise. Learn more about the winners 
Regardless of what you may have been told about comments he “reportedly made…” you can now hear in the report below, in his own words, what University of Florida President Bernie Machen thinks of the Florida agriculture industry and the budget crisis facing the University and the State of Florida as a whole. Speaking to us here at Southeast AgNet moments ago in an effort to reach Florida agriculture directly, Machen wants to set the record straight about comments attributed to him that he says he never made. Machen also wants agriculture to understand the severe budget challenges facing the University of Florida and other state institutions going into this year’s legislative session.
New Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer says he’s willing to listen to a proposal being floated by US and Mexican sugar producers that would put some controls back on sugar and corn syrup trade between the two countries, controls that were lifted this year as the last part of the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.
In this report, comments from Acting U S Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner late last week, about the talk in some circles about the Farm Bill reverting to ‘permanent law’ should differences in House and Senate versions not get worked out. 
Halloween is coming and America’s sugar producers want consumers to know that the price of their treats this year could be lower, if the price of sugar were passed along to them. Sugarcane producer and Florida Farm Bureau vice president Rick Roth says candy prices have increased 50-percent since the 1980s - despite falling sugar prices - and industrial sugar users are pushing for bigger cuts in the new farm bill. 
Being the dog lovers we are around the network headquarters, I thought I’d share this commentary in particular. It’s from Southeast AgNet’s long-time commentary producer, Everett Griner. He first did this one many years ago, and I recently asked him to do it again so it would become part of these network on-line archives. By the way, in case you’re not aware, all of Ev Griner’s daily commentaries can be found in the “Agri-View” category of this website. Enjoy!
In the first report below, U. S. Sugar Vice President Robert Coker (left in photo) discusses when the facility will deliver its first seedlings. In the second report, U S Sugar President/CEO Bob Buker (right) discusses the company’s decision to heavily invest in the future of Southern Gardens and Florida’s citrus industry. 
At the recent annual summer meeting of the Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association (FFAA) several speakers addressed Florida’s urban growth and the prospects for agriculture in the future as Florida’s population is sure to continue to expand. The first report posted below features Sr Vice President Richard Woodruff of Wilson Miller Engineering firm in Ft Myers, discussing how the statewide mindset needs to change to save Florida from continual expansion and congestion in Florida’s already existing urban centers. The second report posted below has the entire interview segment with Mr Woodruff, about 3-1/2 minutes total. By the way, Wilson Miller is one of the firms doing a lot of work on the Babcock Ranch deal in southwest Florida that garnered so much news coverage in recent months.
Ethanol producers and sugar producers alike are pleased with a provision included in the farm bill recently approved by the U.S. House that would permit the government to channel some surplus sugar to ethanol production.
there are some good things for Florida citrus and other agriculture segments in the recently passed House version of the Farm Bill, there are also some very negative aspects to the bill that could outweigh the positives. In this report, hear Putnam’s pointed comments about a severe loss of conservation funding if the bill is not adjusted before its final version.
