- 5/15/2025
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signs into law a ban on putting fluoride into the water supply.
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00:00want to recognize we have the President of the Florida Senate, Ben Albritton, with us today,
00:05as well as his colleagues, Senators True now, Hooper, and they even let in Blazing Golia. So
00:11thank you guys. We also have the President of the Florida Farm Bureau, Jeb Smith, and I want to
00:18welcome him as well. And we've got a lot of great folks that are here for the bill that we're about
00:23to sign. Most of the people in this room know how important of a role agriculture plays in Florida's
00:31economy, but also in Florida's culture, particularly from the very beginning of our state
00:37all the way through. It's been the lifeblood for so many families and for so many of our citizens.
00:44Today, we're home to over 45,000 farms and ranches. That's over 10 million acres of farmland
00:52just in the state of Florida. We have a lot of really, really significant things that are
00:58produced here. I know as many of you know, we account for over half of fresh tomatoes, nearly
01:0440 percent of all bell pepper, 42 percent of grapefruit, and of course one-third of all oranges.
01:11I know there's been an issue. We've worked together on that for many, many years. But our
01:17floriculture sales account for 18 percent of the U.S. value, and that's over $1.16 billion
01:25for natural agriculture production. We have 140,000 jobs, and the total agriculture production
01:32for everything is over $11 billion just here in the state of Florida. So that's a big deal.
01:39There's a lot that goes into that. We've been very helpful since my time as governor. I know when
01:45the commissioner was in the Senate, we were able to do the Right to Farm Bill to update that to
01:51make sure that folks were able to earn a living and to pursue their dreams without excessive
01:58government interference. We also have done a lot to preserve farmland. We did the Rural and Family
02:06Lands Protection Program. That provided hundreds of millions of dollars for Florida's farming,
02:14forestry, and ranch land to be preserved. We've done a lot apart from that too. The
02:19Florida Wildlife Corridor. We've done a lot on Everglades. I'm proud that the state's growing,
02:25and there's a lot obviously to do, but we don't want the whole state to be a parking lot. We don't
02:29want the whole thing to just be cement. We want to make sure that this part of Florida is preserved.
02:36So that's had a big deal. I know the commissioner and the cabinet has worked with me already to
02:41protect over 140,000 acres of farmland from being sold. And I think most of the time it's sold,
02:48it ends up being a housing community or something like that. And look, people want to move to
02:53Florida because so many of these other states get all this stuff wrong that they want to be in a
02:58free state. People ask me about, oh, well, you guys are doing this, you're doing that. How do
03:03you guys do it? And I say, well, there's a lot that goes into that. But as governor, I do have
03:08a cheat code. I can simply look to California, Illinois, New York, and then do the opposite of
03:13what they're doing. And it usually works out pretty good. So we've got a lot of people that
03:17want to come, and that's fine. But we also want to make sure that we're doing what we can to preserve
03:23an important part of Florida's heritage. We even did something last year on this lab-grown meat.
03:31And people said, oh, well, let people choose to do lab-grown meat. And some people said,
03:38it may not be good for you. It may not be safe. We don't know yet. But that really wasn't
03:42the reason why I signed the bill. The reason why I signed the bill is that this lab-grown
03:49meat is part of a larger agenda. People like the World Economic Forum, others, they view
03:55agriculture as the problem for global warming. They view cattle as the problem for global
04:02warming. And so it's not that they just want to give consumers a choice with this. Their goal in
04:08pursuing this is to basically drive the cattle industry out of business. And that's not going
04:13to happen today. If we had not done the bill, it wouldn't have happened today. It may not happen
04:18next week, next year. But that is the goal. So we can sit there and just act like that's not the
04:24case, or we can nip it in the bud. So we chose to just nip it in the bud. I'm not playing the
04:29games of the World Economic Forum. I want to make sure that we preserve the cattle industry,
04:34not only in the state of Florida, but throughout the entire United States of America. And that
04:38was one part of a battle that we fought that wasn't limited to agriculture, but had a huge
04:45impact. And that's this whole idea of so-called ESG, environment, social governance. We launched
04:52a frontal assault against this in Florida many years ago. See, now it's fallen out of favor.
04:57At the time, it was like the thing to do. You had these massive companies falling all over
05:03themselves to try to do ESG scores. What's this? What's that? And part of the ESG was,
05:09they really wanted to kneecap the way farmers did their jobs. A lot of the things that go in
05:15to modern agriculture, they did not want to even allow that to happen. That was their ultimate
05:21vision with some of the ESG stuff. And it went just beyond agriculture. It went into a whole
05:27bunch of other things where big corporate financial institutions had to have DEI policies.
05:33You had to have all this other stuff. And some people said, well, ESG, it's private sector. Let
05:39them do what they want. The problem is, is those weren't just business decisions. They were trying
05:45to change our society. They were trying to change policy, basically, without ever having to get
05:51elected to anything, without ever having to go through the process and actually do that. They
05:56just wanted to kind of collude together, asset managers, big companies, all that, and impose
06:02this worldview through the sheer force of their economic power. And that was unacceptable.
06:08So we stood up against it in our pension fund and all across all avenues that we could,
06:16when it really wasn't popular to do so, when we were going up against some pretty powerful
06:21institutions. But I can tell you today, the number one reason why you don't hear as much about ESG
06:28is because Florida was really the one responsible for killing ESG when we took our stand. In fact,
06:34the head of BlackRock, he was kind of the visionary behind it. And then he was asked,
06:38like last year, like, whoa, ESG's kind of falling apart. So you got guys like Governor DeSantis,
06:43they've made it toxic because they're always out there criticizing. But it's true. We really led
06:48the charge on that. That had huge impact for our society, but it definitely had major,
06:54major ramifications for our agriculture community. And so I was glad to not only lead those efforts,
07:01but have a lot of support for folks in the Florida legislature at the time. And we got it
07:06right in Florida and other states have followed. And now under the Trump administration, people
07:11don't even talk about ESG anymore because the tide has shifted. Another thing we've led on,
07:17and some other states are following, but we need more. We also need to see the federal government
07:21do something similar, is we passed historic legislation to protect agriculture lands from
07:28the encroachment of the Chinese Communist Party. I don't want China owning farmland in the state of
07:34Florida or anywhere in the United States for that matter. It's too important to our sustainability
07:41as a people, as a country to allow a hostile Communist Party to take control of this. And
07:50when they buy it, it's not going to say the Chinese Communist Party buys this. No, I mean,
07:54these are front groups and all this other stuff. And we've done a good job on that legislation to
07:59police that. So we were probably the first state on all these things. Usually we're the first,
08:04but if we're not the first, it's like we're second or third. And it's just because some other states
08:09have earlier legislative sessions than we do sometimes. But we were definitely leading the
08:14charge on that and we've done that. And so that is something, and it's not just farmland, that's
08:19something that's important. It's by any land near critical infrastructure, our military bases.
08:26Why do we want the Chinese Communist Party to be buying land near our military bases or
08:33utilities and plants, power plants? Of course, we don't want to do that. So I'm glad that Florida
08:38was able to lead on that. Now brings us here today. SB 700 is the farm bill for the state
08:46of Florida. It does a lot of things that I think a lot of people are really going to be happy about.
08:53One, and we've already did an event on this, you've had this debate, and really Florida's
09:00led on this too, partially because our Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Latipo, has really led the
09:06charge by going to counties and saying, forcing fluoride into your water is actually not good.
09:14There's risks associated with that for pregnant women, for young people, for kids. And yes,
09:20use fluoride for your teeth, that's fine, but forcing it into the water supply is basically
09:26forced medication on people. They don't have a choice. You're taking that away from them.
09:30And so he really led, he had a lot of county governments, including Miami-Dade, that were
09:36saying, we're not going to force the fluoride into the water. People want to use it on their teeth,
09:41great, you know, but it's readily available now. And so that led to this being put in the farm
09:49bill to say, you know, that local governments cannot engage in this fluoride force medication.
09:56So the counties that did it are great, but now that's going to apply statewide once we sign the
10:01bill and it formally goes into effect. And it raises a larger issue about, and I think we saw
10:07a lot of this with COVID, that we had to fight back against. They wanted to, they had certain
10:12views, you know, you should wear a mask when you're outside in 95 degree temperatures, no thank you,
10:18but that's what they were saying. They were saying that kids should get a COVID mRNA shot,
10:26even though we still don't have data to this day to justify doing that. And so they tried to push
10:33a lot of policies on people. And I think what it is, is I think some of these people, they think
10:38that they know better for you than you do for yourself. They think because they have medical
10:44training or they have this, that they should just be able to decree how we live our lives. And that
10:50proved disastrous during COVID. I mean, a lot of the things they were advocating, not only didn't
10:54work, they caused a lot of harm. I mean, just think, when we made sure that the schools were
10:59open, I got sued by the teachers union saying, close the schools. We had all these people,
11:05Fauci was saying this is irresponsible and all this stuff. They'd have had these kids locked
11:09out for a year, year and a half, it was up to them. So we fought back against it. And I think
11:14this fluoride is a good example because what they're basically saying is they're ignoring any
11:20studies that have shown that there could be issues if you're overexposed to this, particularly for
11:25pregnant women and for kids. And, but they say, well, it's good for your teeth. So we should just
11:30force it. And you shouldn't have a choice in that. We certainly now in our society in 2025,
11:37we have the ability to deliver a fluoride through toothpaste and mouth and all these other things.
11:43You don't got to force it and take away people's choices. But the whole crux of the issue is
11:49you should be able to make decisions on the basis of informed consent. So you should be able to take
11:57information. You should be able to talk to folks, your doctor, your friends, your family, whatever
12:03on any of these issues, and then make an honest judgment about what you think is best for you
12:08and your family. Forcing this in the water supply is trying to take that away from people who may
12:14want to make a different decision rather than to have this in water. And honestly, this is a much
12:18bigger issue. I mean, fluoride is kind of one touch point, but it's a much larger issue about
12:25how some of our physicians treat different patients. You know, there are places in this
12:30country where folks are denied medical treatment because they didn't get a flu shot or they didn't
12:37get an mRNA COVID booster. I mean, first of all, the COVID boosters, people still get COVID.
12:45The idea that that is like something that you should be have negative consequences because you
12:50decide not to is ridiculous. And the flu shot, you know, I was in the Navy, they would force me to
12:54take these flu shots. And it's like, honestly, sometimes you have a negative reaction to it,
12:59right? And the data on it is not great. It's very underwhelming. And so to say that someone that may
13:05need medical attention, that you're not going to treat them because they haven't done this,
13:11that is not what informed consent is. That is saying, if you don't do what they're telling
13:15you to do, you're going to have really serious negative consequences. Well, it's not a free
13:20choice at that point. And you even have some pediatricians, they will not take children as
13:27patients unless the children get all of these, like the COVID jab. And first of all, CDC put
13:35that on the immunization schedule and we were opposed to it from day one because there wasn't
13:40data to support it. We were the first state in the country to recommend against mRNA shots for kids.
13:49And people would say, you know, we think it may be harmful for kids. We didn't even need to go
13:53into that debate because there was never data showing a benefit to kids. And so if there's no
13:58benefit shown through a clinical trial, then how are you even doing this? But that's what it's
14:03coming to in this country, where you're penalized for making a choice based on the available
14:10information. And I don't think that that's right. I know we extended some of our medical freedom
14:15protections this year with some of the legislation that was passed. But honestly, we need to do
14:21better in Florida. We need to make sure that parents are able to make choices without suffering
14:28consequences for rational decision and choices that they make. But I think this fluoride thing
14:34was important. We're leading the way on it. We got kudos from the HHS Secretary, RFK Jr.
14:42And I know a lot of people were happy to see that. And I think you're going to see a lot of states
14:45that are going to follow suit with that. So we stand for informed consent. And I think that's
14:52really, really important. This bill also builds off previous ESG discrimination prohibitions
14:59to include protections against discrimination based on certain environmental policies or
15:05artificial emission targets. You know, some of this stuff, and obviously it's on the decline
15:11with the Trump administration replacing the Biden administration. But it got to the point,
15:15you know, we rejected a lot of the Biden highway money, hundreds of millions of dollars, because
15:21in order to use it, I had to jump through these DEI hoops and these ESG hoops. They wanted us at
15:28the state of Florida to monitor your tailpipe emissions from your vehicles. I ain't doing that.
15:33I'm sorry. And so we sent it back to Elon Musk. Elon is happy to take it. Biden's people,
15:39they didn't know how to take it back because no one had ever given up money back. But I think it's
15:42really important that we strengthen those ESG protections. And this does do that. And also,
15:48for the first time, this bill provides the state with the ability to return solar fields back into
15:54agricultural production, which, you know, this solar, first of all, I'm not opposed to solar,
15:59right? But like we shouldn't be doing green New Deal policies where you're trying to put a thumb
16:05on the scale. Environmentally, people act like because there's no carbon emission from a solar
16:11panel, there's a lot that goes into producing those panels that they don't want to tell you
16:15about. But then what happens? It takes up massive pieces of property. It's not not nice to look at,
16:21but then it really degrades the property. There's a lot of waste that's created. So I think
16:26transitioning some of this stuff back into production, I think that's going to be really,
16:30really positive for the state of Florida. And I can tell you, we did an energy bill
16:37two years ago or last, I think it was last year, where we basically said in Florida,
16:42our energy policy is not to stop global warming, because we can't I mean, like, that's like,
16:48that's, that's ideology. Our policy is about affordability, and reliability. And that's
16:55important for consumers to have the most affordable options. And if you look, our utility
17:01rates in Florida are half of what they are in California. Now, I would like to pay like everyone
17:06like to pay less always. But the reality is the states that have done the green New Deal policies,
17:11their their, the costs have gone up, but reliability. You guys have been through,
17:18we had Helene, we had Milton, those further south, we had Ian.
17:25And we had, you know, we had seven years in this state. And you know, we had 10 years,
17:33we didn't have any hurricanes, right. And historically, that's the way it goes,
17:36you tend to get some and hopefully we're in the we're beyond that. And hopefully we've got a
17:40little, little runway here. But the reality is, is one of the best things that you can do apart
17:47from the emergency response, if anyone's life or safety is in jeopardy, which we do very well
17:53at the local level and at the state level working together and have saved a lot of lives.
17:58But the best thing you can do is to make sure that the lights are on for everybody. If you get
18:03everybody's lights on, then everything else you have to do to recover from a hurricane becomes
18:08much simpler and much easier. Well, some of these policies around the country where you have to have
18:14a certain amount of solar and wind into the grid, or what's that lead? It leads to blackouts.
18:21That's what it leads to. So Florida has been very reliable. And I'm really excited to do that. So
18:27I'm not against if people want to do solar, but I don't think we should subsidize it. And I don't
18:32think we should harm traditional energy. And especially Florida, we've had huge decrease in
18:38carbon emissions over the last 10 or 15 years, not because of solar, because of natural gas,
18:44replacing coal, that's been a huge, huge thing. And that's been very, very reliable. So I
18:50appreciate it. This bill also strengthens our foreign influence laws by prohibiting charitable
18:55organizations from soliciting or receiving funds from hostile foreign countries of concern. And
19:01that includes the People's Republic of China, Russia, and Iran and Cuba. So I want to thank
19:08them for doing that. So we're happy to be able to do this. I think that you're going to see a lot
19:15of positive coming out of this. I know Senator True now was instrumental in doing it in the
19:21Senate. And I want to recognize him as well as Representatives Tuck and Danny Alvarez in the
19:26house for their diligent work, doing delivering policies that hopefully will have a really
19:32positive benefit for Floridians now and in the future. And so with that, before we get to signing
19:38it, we're gonna have some more comments. And so I'd like to invite up, we'll do one at a time,
19:44we'll do Simpson, Albritton, and then Jeb Smith. And so we'll start with the Commissioner.
19:51Thank you, Governor. And thank you for being here today. This is at least 60 people that we were
19:55anticipating being here today. I really appreciate everyone coming and the interest on this bill.
20:01It's very important to agriculture, not only agriculture though, but consumers of the state
20:05of Florida. And just as a note, this is our third year in a row now we've gotten our Farm Bill
20:10signed. So we're very proud of that accomplishment also. And the Governor mentioned it in the
20:17last few years, we've done a lot of things like ban fake meat, ban foreign enemies from buying
20:21our ag land. But this year's bill is uniquely, I think, positioned over consumers and agriculture.
20:28The fluoride ban, the Governor mentioned, we learned all of these things during COVID, what
20:33governments are willing to do to our population. And I've said this several times, I've kind of
20:38regretted, I was like, well, what's next? We're going to put a Zimbabwean on our water, right?
20:40Because they know better than us, we should all lose a bunch of weight. And so anyways,
20:46we've banned that this year in the Farm Bill. We're very proud of that. All medications,
20:51water should hydrate, not medicate. We've been very clear on that. The ESG lending practices,
20:57the Governor was one of the first to fight against that in this state. In the legislature,
21:02when I served in there, we did many bills fighting these efforts. But we've discovered that in
21:06agriculture, they are still in our lending standards. So this year, we are banning it
21:14from agriculture. We do not want to buy into the 2035 rules, the 2050 rules, because what
21:19their goal is, is really just to put us out of business. And so no small farmer could comply
21:25with these types of discrimination. So in this bill, it offers a lot of opportunities for us to
21:32not only sue, but fine these organizations if they choose to use ESG lending practices.
21:39We also deal with drones in this bill. That's another one. After this bill is signed today,
21:44people will not be able to fly over your agricultural property and harass your
21:48livestock, your animals, your people, without written consent of the farmer. Now, if you give
21:53them consent, they can certainly do that. Sportsmen, out hunters, shooting ranges and
21:59things. They will not be able to harass those organizations without potentially spending some
22:03time in jail, which is something we have not had in the past. Protects food labeling, right? We
22:09have soy milk and almond milk and all of these things and things that they call meat that have
22:15nothing to do with milk or meat. If it's not grown on a hoof, you're not going to be able to call it
22:20meat. And if it's not out of an udder, you're not going to be able to call it milk. So we're very
22:25proud of that in this farm bill. Now, we've banded together. There are going to be in multiple
22:28states around the country that are going to have to sign this to Southeastern to make this
22:34official because we don't want people to have mislabeled food products. And we're not,
22:39this bill identifies that. We also protect our second amendment rights. A lot of people still
22:44get the concealed carry license, even though you're not required to in the free state of Florida. You
22:49don't have to get it, but if you do get it, before we had several loopholes that this bill is
22:55consolidating, which will make it much quicker for people to receive those permits. And the last
22:59thing I really wanted to mention about this, and I'm very proud of this, with our FFA and 4-H
23:03students. So when you think about what we've done in the last three years for those kids,
23:08three years ago, we did a grant program in the legislature that said, if you're going to
23:12participate in the FFA, we will grant the dollars for parents, because a lot of parents wanted to
23:17participate, could afford it. We went from 30,000 kids three years ago to over 60,000 kids today
23:24that are participating in FFA. We're very proud of that. And then we come to step two of that,
23:30is that then the school systems would not allow them to have an excused absence
23:34to participate in FFA and 4-H events. So last year, we said, you know what, we're not going
23:39to do that any longer. It is an excused absence, mandatory excused absence, to participate in 4-H
23:45and FFA events. So check box number two. And then this year, it's about zoning. Well, we would love
23:51to participate in FFA and 4-H, but our zoning won't allow us to build those type of facilities
23:57at our schools. This farm bill says that on an educational facility, you can build that
24:03infrastructure to help support agriculture. So we believe when this bill is signed, that this
24:09is going to really unleash the full efforts of parents and children that want to participate
24:14in agriculture, FFA and 4-H. I was talking to the Federation of Affairs this morning. I said,
24:19get ready. In two or three years, when these barns go into these cities and communities where
24:24they currently can't have them, you're going to have a lot more FFA kids show up at your schools,
24:28a lot more 4-H kids show up at the schools. So we're very proud of what you're doing here today,
24:33Governor. You've been a champion on these issues. Our Senate President's here today. I know he's
24:37speaking next. We're very proud of the legislature. I was in the legislature. It was different then.
24:43We were saying yes or no to things. Today, we're now begging. But the legislature's been
24:49very good to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Very proud to have
24:54the president here today. And just before I turn it over to Ben, you know, on this,
25:06because Wilton raised this issue of things like soy milk and all this stuff. First of all,
25:12I don't do any of that, right? I mean, I do milk and meat, and that's kind of how I am.
25:17And I think a lot of people are like that, but others are not. But I will tell you this,
25:21whether it's legit or real or not, the one experiment I know is that there was one day
25:27where our kids in second, first, and pre-K, and they were probably even younger then,
25:32that they were very hungry, and they asked their mom to please make them macaroni and cheese.
25:39The problem is we didn't have any milk in the refrigerator. So the first lady decided to use
25:45the soy milk to make the macaroni and cheese. Let's just say that did not go over well with
25:50our kids. And to this day, they still give my wife a little bit of, you know what,
25:56about the fact that she tried to do macaroni and cheese using soy milk. Ben?
26:02Very nice. Hello, everyone. So first of all, I want to thank you, Governor, for your support of
26:09Florida agriculture. You've been steadfast in all the efforts that you've brought through,
26:14and thank you for that. Commissioner Simpson, thank you very much, not just for your leadership
26:19in the agency today, but through the legislature. The list of your accomplishments are very, very
26:24long, something you should be proud of for sure. Jeb and Ed, Blaise, Keith, thank you very much
26:31for being here. Then I also want to thank you, Wilton and Governor, for using all of my talking
26:37points. That's fantastic. I want to point something out to the people in this room. Yeah,
26:43that's true. I want to point something out to the people in this room and anybody that can see us
26:48out there through the cameras. The great seal of Florida has, in God we trust.
26:56That's important, right? God is praiseworthy. I'm thankful to God for everybody in this room.
27:01When I look around here, I'm myself, I'm a fourth generation citrus grower, and I look around this
27:07room, and what I see is I see a lot of folks here that are multi-generation farmers. It is part of
27:13the DNA of Florida. The Governor mentioned that earlier, but it is absolutely part of the DNA of
27:17Florida. It is, quite frankly, I think the best part of Florida. Whether it was one acre or 10
27:24million acres, Florida farmers bring a value that nobody else can bring. The resilience,
27:30you used the word resilience, Governor. Florida farmers are resilient. We don't know any better,
27:35right? Whether it be a storm or a disease, all we know is how do we get to the next crop?
27:41And the great news is, is back home, most everybody that I spend time with grows something
27:45for a living. You can learn a lot from people that go through that exercise every day,
27:50and they understand the difficulties, but they also understand the successes and how good it is
27:54to be able to sell a steer or harvest a crop and be able to see sometimes years-long efforts
28:02produce something good for your family and the communities. So I applaud everybody here
28:06that grows something for a living, and anybody that can hear my voice out there,
28:10we are thankful to God for you. We are thankful that you are in the fight. The Florida Senate,
28:15I can tell you, for various reasons, but we are in the fight to support Florida agriculture.
28:21It is very, very important. So one piece I will mention that was not part of this,
28:28that one piece y'all didn't take. Imagine a hurricane comes through, God forbid, right?
28:38And you have your family and you're trying to evacuate, and you are going down the road and
28:42you come to a gas station, or you're trying to just get out, right? You come to a gas station,
28:48there's no power, right? Gas is in the tank, it's below the ground, but you can't have access to it.
28:53You come to the next one, same thing. You're at a quarter tank in your own car.
28:58You can't get access to it. One of the things this bill does, and it's very important actually,
29:02there's a grant program that is built into this legislation that provides for access to funding
29:08to put switches, connect switches, at these convenience stores. So when hurricane evacuation
29:14or when hurricane recovery is happening, those families will not have to search on and on and on
29:20and on trying to find gasoline just to keep their family safe and get out of harm's way.
29:25These switches will go a long way to making sure that we have generators that are connected to
29:30these places and will have access to that gasoline. The last thing I'll leave you with is this,
29:35and this is very important. Remember this, if you eat, you're involved in agriculture. Thank you.
29:53Well, I'll tell you what, it blesses my heart to see such a large group of folks,
29:59and Governor, from all over this state, from ranging in ages and commodities. Thank you all
30:04for being here and showing the importance of what this is to Florida agriculture. Give yourselves
30:08a round of applause on that. I want to say thank you, Governor DeSantis, for signing this today.
30:17Thank you, Commissioner Simpson, for your leadership and others as well. It is truly an
30:21honor to be able to stand alongside leaders who govern, and I will say by upholding our values
30:27and by conviction, consistently putting Florida and its people first. You know,
30:33agriculture is not only the backbone of Florida's economy, it is the cornerstone of our national
30:38security. You know, from fresh produce on our tables to the fiber and foliage that
30:43support countless industries, Florida farmers and ranchers work tirelessly to feed and supply
30:49not only our state, but the entire nation. Their work is vital, and it deserves policies that
30:55protect and strengthen their ability to succeed. The Florida Farm Bill is a critical step in that
31:01direction by addressing essential needs, such as, and one thing that wasn't mentioned, our workforce
31:07housing for legally verified agricultural workers. This legislation ensures that our farmers have
31:13access to a stable, dependable labor force, and it supports those who follow the law,
31:20who contribute meaningfully to our communities, and help keep our agricultural economy thriving.
31:27You know, we commend Commissioner Simpson, Senate President Ben Albritton, House Speaker
31:32Danny Perez, Senator Keith Trunow, and Representatives Kayleigh Tuck and Danny Alvarez
31:38for their leadership and commitment to this issue. Their work on the Florida Farm Bill directly
31:43supports agricultural production in Florida, and Governor DeSantis's broader efforts to combat
31:48illegal immigration, while also assuring adequate employment by providing the workforce required
31:55for our state's agricultural industry. By prioritizing legal workforce solutions, this
32:03bill reinforces the governor's mission to protect Florida communities, uphold our legal standards,
32:09and put Floridians first. This bill is the result of exceptional, great leadership in Florida
32:16targeting practical and deeply supportive of both our economy as well as security interests.
32:22We are proud as Florida agriculturists to stand behind the Florida Farm Bill, Governor DeSantis,
32:29Commissioner Simpson, and the legislative leaders who have made this a priority.
32:33Thank you all for all that you've done.
32:46All right, so today is
33:16about
33:23young kids. Who wants a pen? How young?
33:30Anyone else? Any kids out there in the audience? Do we have any more?
33:33Anyone want to bring something home for those kids? Okay, there you go.
33:39Yeah.
33:40All right.
33:41Here we go, guys.
33:42Right here.
33:43Okay.
33:44Good deal.
33:45Thanks, guys.
33:46Good work.
33:47Good job.
33:48You can take a seat so the governor can get you.
33:49Okay.
34:11You can take a seat so the governor can come back to the podium.
34:12Yeah.
34:13Yeah.
34:14Yeah, of course.
34:15Of course.
34:16Of course.
34:18All right.
34:19Well, good work.
34:20I'm glad you got such a great turnout.
34:32I want to thank everybody who does a lot of important work for our state.
34:37It's an important industry, important for the culture.
34:40And I know a lot of folks.
34:41It's funny.
34:42There's a lot of people in this country that think of Florida and they think of Disney
34:46World or Miami Beach and like that's it.
34:48And they don't even realize, you know, that we have major cattle industry.
34:51I guess people know citrus, but some of the other stuff people don't know.
34:55So it's a big, it's a great story to tell and a big part of the state's culture.
34:57Okay.
34:58Do we have any questions?
34:59I think it's more just the fact that there's things that are important here.
35:12I mean, I've been very passionate about the fluoride issue.
35:15I think it's important to not have forced medication.
35:18We have worked well together.
35:19I think he's somebody that is trying to do the best he can to represent his constituents,
35:26to obviously manage his caucus, and then ultimately to do what's best for Florida.
35:31And I think that's the way, you know, it should be done.
35:33And quite frankly, that's been the way that, uh, that has traditionally been done, uh,
35:37in Florida over these, um, over these years I've been here for sure.
35:40Uh, look, I'm very frank when I see things and the other chamber that I don't think are
35:46consistent with what the voters sent them there to do.
35:48Uh, but ultimately, you know, this stuff all works itself out.
35:51And Governor, will you please assign House Bill 1617, the one involving medical malpractice,
35:57allowing relatives to sue if there's a death?
36:00No, uh, because it would cause malpractice pre-insurance premiums to skyrocket.
36:06Uh, the folks that we talked to universally said that.
36:10Um, and the thing is you can sue, right?
36:13That's a misnomer.
36:14You can sue, you can sue for economic damages.
36:17What they want to do is to sue for non-economic damages.
36:20What that is going to do is that's going to lead to a flood of lawsuits, uh, against
36:24practitioners and against hospitals.
36:28Malpractice premiums are going to go up.
36:29It's going to be harder to recruit physicians into Florida and ultimately healthcare costs
36:32will go up.
36:34What I suggested that was done, and I know there was some support of it in the Senate,
36:38is that if you had caps on the amount of damages people could seek, that would disincentivize
36:45a lot of jackpot justice.
36:47And so if you had situations, you already can do economic damages, then you would be
36:52able to do non-economic, but you were not, you would not be able to kind of hit the lottery.
36:58You would be able to potentially get within the realm.
37:00And so that I think is what's missing.
37:03And you know, we've spoken with a lot of folks, uh, in the healthcare, hospitals, physicians.
37:07I mean, I have, I mean, it was pretty overwhelming in terms of the concern, you know, that they
37:12had on it.
37:13If there were a caps on that, then it'd probably be something that people would be able to
37:18live with.
37:19But, um, when governor Charles signed the reforms back in the early nineties, because
37:24this undoes what governor Charles signed back in the early nineties, it, um, we had massive,
37:29massive malpractice insurance crisis in Florida and we still have very high premiums for malpractice
37:36insurance.
37:37Part of it is, you know, we've had a lot of litigation over the years.
37:40We did have caps that were put in that the old liberal Supreme court said were not a
37:45constitutional.
37:46I don't think that was the right decision.
37:47And I don't think this court current court would reach the same conclusion, but that
37:51was done because they were dealing with a crisis.
37:54And so, and I understand obviously, and it's somebody who respects physicians.
38:00I also lived through COVID and I understand that they get, they get things wrong.
38:04So I'm not opposed to holding them accountable for medical malpractice to the contrary.
38:08I think you need to do that.
38:09And I know there've been people that have been victimized, had family members, and it's
38:12a really, really sad thing.
38:14But I also know you have to look at the global view.
38:17What is it going to do for the overall access to care prices, uh, the willingness of physicians
38:23to come here.
38:24And that was very clear to me in speaking with folks.
38:28Yes.
38:29Do I have a message for the victims families?
38:37Well, the victims, part of the frustration of this, like for, I support capital punishment
38:43because I think there are so some crimes that are just so horrific.
38:48The only appropriate punishment is the death penalty.
38:52And I know there's some people that disagree with that and that's fine, but that's my judgment.
38:58The problem though, is that, you know, these folks go through and it takes forever to be
39:04able to do this.
39:05And I want to have process and the courts don't always get it right.
39:08And if someone is wrongfully convicted, you want there to be a backstop for sure.
39:12But man, the fact that it takes so long.
39:15So I think in most of the families that I've spoken to who've lost loved ones at the hands
39:21of really brutal killers, uh, there's just always that frustration with waiting and it's
39:27like you never get closure.
39:30And so this can't bring their loved ones back.
39:33But I think what it can do is at least provide some closure that this whole legal enterprise
39:41has come to a conclusion.
39:42They don't have to worry about something happening down the line, but it's, um, when you see
39:48these things across your desk, these are brutal, brutal crimes.
39:52Um, and I'm not suggesting that, you know, some of the crimes that don't merit the death
39:56penalty aren't brutal too, because there's a lot of stuff, but this stuff is, is, is
40:00just overwhelmingly sadistic.
40:02It shocks your conscience and that's just not the way that a civilized society can function.
40:08So part of it is an appropriate punishment.
40:11Part of it is it expresses the outrage of the community because if you do something
40:15less than that, then potentially you're sending a signal that yeah, it's bad, but not as bad
40:20as it could have been.
40:21No, these are the worst of the worst.
40:23And we're very united in doing that.
40:25So we have a lot of sympathy for the families that have had to gun through these ordeals.
40:30It's not easy to lose a loved one.
40:32I mean, some of these folks, you know, had brothers, sisters, children, nieces, nephews.
40:39I mean, it's, um, it's really, really bad stuff.
40:43So, so we're, we're working through these cases.
40:46We take everything very seriously.
40:47It's an obligation I have as governor to oversee it.
40:51There have been times when we've had things and there were some people had questions,
40:56but anytime we go forward, you know, I'm convinced that not only was the verdict correct,
41:02but that, that this punishment is absolutely appropriate under the circumstances.
41:07Thanks guys.
41:08We'll see ya.
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