J. Bernard Machen, President of the University of
Florida (UF), reportedly made a statement last week that has sent shockwaves
throughout Florida’s
agricultural community. Even Charles Bronson, Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture, is
greatly concerned.
Machen is reported to have said that “agriculture is a dying industry in the
State of Florida” and “not worthy of the
investments being made by the Legislature” in the University’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS).
Apparently those
investments do not reach his goal of making UF one of the top 10 universities
in the United States.
Accordingly, the
$25 million (or more) in potential budget cuts he is considering for UF also
contain plans to cut a disproportionate amount of funds from IFAS, with some
cuts possibly being implemented as early as March of 2008!
Machen is considering cutting a
number of faculty members from IFAS, consolidating their educational programs,
close and/or severely cut some Extension offices (which include 4H) and make
cuts within IFAS’ educational research centers.
How severely does he plan to cut? It has a lot to do with
the reaction of the agricultural community to this issue!
Is agriculture a dying industry in Florida? “No way!” says Commissioner of
Agriculture Charles Bronson when asked that question by the Farm & Ranch News
staff.
“Florida
agriculture had an economic value of $67 billion in 2001. Today, Florida agriculture has
an economic value of $97 billion. With the “Farm-to-Fuel” program, Florida agriculture is
expected to grow into a $200 billion industry,” said Bronson.
IFAS impacts more than just production agriculture. In Florida today, the 4H
program, through the Extension Service, had an
enrollment of over 243,000 youth. County and City governments utilize IFAS and
Extension for their research and assistance in many issues, including water
management, recycling, food safety and disease control.
The University
of Florida can become one
of the nation’s top 10 universities; but we need to educate President Machen, UF’s Board of Trustees, and our Florida Legislature
of just how important IFAS and Extension is to agriculture and the youth of our
state.
If you want to know what Extension does, and if letter
writing works, click on Page Three of our website www.farmandranchnews.com. There you
will see an article on how Palm Beach Extension was saved by letter writing.
Next, click on Page Six and read an article by a current Extension Director who
explains the scope of what Extension does.
The time for action is NOW! Don’t look over your shoulder
and expect someone else to make calls and send letters to key people about this
issue. If everyone did this, it won’t get done! Make sure you keep your letters
positive! Talk about how IFAS, Extension and/or 4H has
impacted you or your family. Negative and attacking emails will hurt our
efforts, so you MUST keep it specific, positive and informative. If possible,
give photo examples of areas in your life that IFAS, Extension and/or 4H has benefited you and your family. Here are the contacts you
need to make:
J. Bernard Machen, President
University of Florida
226 Tigert Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611
Sign up for Farm
& Ranch News email alerts. Just click the email link at the top of our
website or email farmandranchnews@yahoo.com to sign up. This will
help keep you up to date on the latest news and actions being taken to help
IFAS, Extension and 4H. We have also teamed up with Horse & Pony News to
help spread the word. They are also keeping updates on their 4H dog website at
http://www.fl4-h-dog.com/
Personally
spread the word. Email a link to our website to anyone that might be interested
in helping with this issue. Club leaders: encourage your kids to write during
meetings.
By virtue of UF
rules, employees of and staff members are not permitted to lobby about this
issue and could lose their job if they do. Thus, it is up to us to act and act
now!
We will update
our website as we get more information.