By WILTON SIMPSON
If you’ve spent any time in agriculture, you’ve learned a simple truth: we’re not really farming for ourselves.
Every seed planted, every fence repaired, every grove, pasture and field we care for is an investment in what comes next. Agriculture has always been about leaving something better behind for the next generation than what was left to us.
That’s one reason I believe so strongly in Florida’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program.
As a fifth-generation Floridian and someone who has spent his life in agriculture, I’ve seen firsthand how much the land means to farming families. It’s more than an asset on a balance sheet. It’s where families have built their livelihoods, raised their children, weathered hard times, and created opportunities for future generations.
The Rural and Family Lands Protection Program helps ensure those opportunities remain available.
Through voluntary conservation easements, the program allows agricultural landowners to permanently protect working lands while continuing to own, operate, and pass them down to future generations. The land stays in private hands. The operation stays productive. Farmers keep farming and ranchers keep ranching.
In a state that continues to grow by thousands of new residents every week, protecting the future of agriculture requires more than good intentions. It requires commitment and long-term investment.
That’s why I am grateful to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senate President Ben Albritton, House Speaker Daniel Perez, and the Florida Legislature for approving a historic $425 million investment in the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program this year – the largest funding commitment in the program’s history.
This record investment builds on the momentum we’ve created over the last several years. Since I took office, Florida has permanently preserved more than 168,000 acres of working agricultural land through the program, bringing the statewide total to more than 234,000 acres. Together with the Legislature and Gov. DeSantis, we have secured more than $1.1 billion for the program since 2022.
But this program has never been about acres on a spreadsheet.
It’s about making sure a cattle ranch can stay a cattle ranch. It’s about helping a family farm remain productive for another generation. It’s about keeping Florida agriculture strong in a world where food security is becoming increasingly important.
For specialty crop growers, that matters. Every acre that remains in agricultural production helps support Florida’s position as a national leader in food production. It strengthens our rural communities, supports local economies, and helps ensure future generations have the opportunity to continue producing food right here in Florida.
Many of the lands protected through this program also provide important benefits for water resources and wildlife habitat. But at its heart, this program is about people – the farmers, ranchers, and agricultural families who have helped shape Florida for generations.
Agriculture built much of this state. The responsibility we share today is to make sure it remains part of Florida’s future.
The Rural and Family Lands Protection Program is one of the most effective tools we have to accomplish that goal, and I look forward to continuing our work with Florida’s agricultural community to protect working lands and strengthen Florida agriculture for generations to come.
Wilton Simpson is Florida’s 13th Commissioner of Agriculture, a member of the Florida Cabinet and previously served as Senate President. For more than four decades, he owned and managed a large-scale egg-laying operation that supplied families across the state. A lifelong Florida farmer and entrepreneur, he has deep personal and professional roots grounded in agriculture.
