TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida agriculture groups rejoiced last month when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $380.7 million grant to help forest landowners hit by Hurricane Michael.
But the celebration was tinged with suspicion that the award could have come sooner — Georgia got its money in February — if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried weren't engaged in a cold war.
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DeSantis, a Republican and close ally of President Donald Trump, has frozen out Fried, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat, in recent months, and even the coronavirus pandemic and economic shutdown haven't been enough to thaw relations. In fact, the crisis made things worse.
On Tuesday, DeSantis canceled yet another Cabinet meeting after Fried, the panel’s only Democrat, had complained — again — about a lack of briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.
As the umbrage mounts and the heels dig in deeper, agriculture lobbyists and executives are sweating. As they negotiate the new political divide in a presidential election year, they’re worried that agriculture — the state's largest industry — could lose out.
"It's unfortunate we are where we are," said one agriculture group lobbyist. "It doesn't help the agriculture industry when the commissioner and the governor just can't be on the same page."
The lobbyist, like most of his peers, asked not to be identified by name for fear of alienating either DeSantis or Fried.
"We’re trying to keep our head down, especially with Covid and everything else," said Jim Spratt, a lobbyist whose clients include the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association. "We are trying to keep our heads down."
Aides for DeSantis and Fried downplayed the feud, saying they’re working on behalf of agriculture.
Fried spokesperson Franco Ripple said the USDA block grant was delayed because of a dispute with the federal agency over a funding formula. The final award announced on May 28 was a joint effort between the agriculture commissioner and the governor's office.
"For more than a year, Commissioner Fried and Florida Forest Service leadership have worked with the USDA and state agencies to get this first-ever agreement negotiated and signed," Ripple said.
Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, whose office is part of the DeSantis administration, said he was “joined at the hip” with Fried’s department as the state pushed for more compensation for landowners.
"Governor DeSantis remains committed to helping all Florida residents, especially those who were deeply affected by Hurricane Michael such as farmers in the timber industry," DeSantis spokesperson Helen Aguirre Ferré said.
But unease over the timber relief grant is symptomatic of the visceral fear among agriculture groups that the feud between DeSantis and Fried will hurt farmers in the long run.
The situation is made worse by DeSantis’ and Fried’s lack of farming expertise. On their way into statewide office, both politicians defeated candidates backed by agriculture, leaving agriculture on the political outside looking for a way to win back the influence and support they traditionally enjoyed in Tallahassee.
Florida agriculture is a $160 billion-a-year industry and the second leading economic sector in the state behind tourism. The crops go beyond citrus to include turfgrass, cattle, timber, vegetables and seafood.
DeSantis defeated Adam Putnam in the 2018 Republican primary for governor after calling the two-term agriculture commissioner "the errand boy for U.S. Sugar."
After winning the general election, DeSantis replaced the agriculture-friendly board of the South Florida Water Management District with a more environmentally minded slate.
And Fried, who hails from urban Broward County, was elected to office while promoting the medical marijuana industry. She rode a wave of support for female Democrats during a nonpresidential election year.
She has been receptive to agriculture, to the dismay of some environmentalists who thought that as a Democrat she’d be more in their corner.
But as the state party’s top official, she’s also raised the volume on her criticism of DeSantis and President Donald Trump. She and other Florida Democrats helped torpedo state legislation championed by DeSantis to transfer the state energy office from her agency to the Department of Environmental Protection.
In March and April, Fried called for Cabinet briefings on the coronavirus outbreak, but said she received no response from the governor.
DeSantis responded in April by leaving Fried off of his Reopen Florida Task Force amid the coronavirus outbreak. The governor appointed incoming Senate President Wilton Simpson, an egg farmer from Trilby, to chair the panel's agriculture subcommittee.
Ferré at the time called Simpson “a real farmer who truly understands all agricultural interests," a comment widely interpreted as a shot at Fried. Ferré last week said she was only pointing out Simpson's ties to agriculture.
Agriculture representatives say their industry has no choice but to work closely with both Fried's office, which regulates food production and promotes Florida farm products, and the DEP under DeSantis, which regulates water quality.
Instead of going solely through the agriculture commissioner on policy issues, farm groups are trying to stay close to the governor's office to ensure their allies are appointed to state boards. The goal is to ensure that agriculture isn’t banished by either camp.
"It is really trying to be with Nikki, but play nice with the governor to try to get these people appointed,” one industry lobbyist said.
Conservationists are in a similar bind between the commissioner and the governor, both whom they consider strong allies.
"They could care less about who is Republican and Democrat," one conservation leader said of the farmers they work with. "I feel like everyone I talk to is so over it. It's ridiculous."
And one trade association executive said his group hasn't had to straddle the divide mostly because it has little contact with the governor's office.
"In the past you had other governors — ag was a big issue for them," he said. "We just don't have any interaction with them."
The Fried-DeSantis divide could grow even worse if the pair face off for the governor’s office in 2022. One industry lobbyist said that’s when he expects the standoff to end — when just one of them is in office.
"It will end in two years," the lobbyist said. "You just got to wait it out. You can't take politics out of politics."
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