Without a long-awaited update of the federal farm bill, relief won’t be available to all Florida farmers and ranchers faced with nearly $1 billion in damage from three hurricanes that hit the state last year, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said Tuesday.
After appearing before the state Senate Agriculture Committee, Simpson told reporters that a continued delay of the farm bill “puts pressure on the entirety of agriculture.”
“Without that farm bill, the people that are suffering the most are your smaller farmers because larger farmers can have capital or can borrow capital to get through a two-year or three-year incompetency of the federal government. Small farmers cannot,” Simpson said.
Simpson is requesting about $50 million from state lawmakers to replenish a low-interest or interest-free loan program that agriculture producers have been able to draw from since Hurricane Idalia hit North Florida’s Big Bend region in August 2023.
But while the state loan program will “help people restore structures and vegetation” damaged by storms, Simpson said “it's never going to match what the (federal) farm bill will do in the billions of dollars.”
Expected to be renewed every five years, the farm bill was last fully updated in 2018.
Partial funding, including disaster relief, was extended last month under the federal American Relief Act of 2025.
Most of the law’s money for agriculture disaster aid went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where it is expected to be distributed for expenses related to lost revenue from dozens of disasters across the country in 2023 and 2024.
Meanwhile, Simpson is also looking toward the state for money to help clear hurricane-damaged forests in North Florida.
Lawmakers on Senate and House panels Tuesday heard from state agencies and local officials about damage from hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.
On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis called a special legislative session to begin Jan. 27 and included the need to address “the widespread disruption to the agricultural industry” from the disasters.
DeSantis’ primary focus in calling the special session is to align state immigration policies with executive orders that President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce after his inauguration next week.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, balked at DeSantis calling the special session, describing it as “premature.”
The legislative leaders also said in a memo that “there are ample funds accessible and available to pay for the state’s ongoing disaster response efforts and additional funds do not have to wait until July 1,” which is the start of the state’s 2025-2026 fiscal year.
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, or UF/IFAS, projected 104,000 acres of farm and ranch land experienced high-intensity weather conditions in the hurricanes and estimated losses to crops and livestock between $402.3 million and $975.8 million.
During a special session after Idalia, the state agricultural loan program, mostly seen as helping restore structures and vegetation, received $75 million, and timber owners received $37.5 million.
Simpson said strawberry growers in Hillsborough County are expected to have a “robust” crop this year after extensive use of the loan program.
Hurricanes Debby and Helene made landfall in Taylor County and caused widespread damage in rural North Florida. Milton made landfall in Sarasota County before cutting through Central Florida, including causing damage in major citrus-growing areas.
