ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When Senate President Wilton Simpson unveiled his selections for committee chairs last week, he included three Democrats as part of the group of 28 – with perhaps the biggest surprise being Darryl Rouson to head the Agriculture Committee.

“So many times, the Agriculture Committee Chairman comes from an agriculture centric district, and obviously, Senator Rouson’s district is not specifically ‘ag’-centric,” says Adam Basford, director of legislative affairs with the Florida Farm Bureau. “But the way that we look at it, these urban areas should be interested in agricultural production in Florida because they’re consumers.”

Rouson’s Senate District 19 seat encompasses the downtown areas of both Tampa and St. Petersburg, two of the five biggest cities in the Sunshine State. He says he was “elated” that Simpson has given him the opportunity to chair a committee “because it gives you an awesome responsibility.”

The St. Petersburg-based Democrat, who was reelected to a second four-year term to the Florida Senate last month, says he’s getting up to speed on agriculture efforts in his district by reviewing statistics provided by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences (UF/IFAS}. The research has shown him that agriculture is responsible for more than 174,000 jobs in Hillsborough County and another 102,000 in Pinellas. 

In addition to farming issues, Rouson says he hopes to have his committee address related issues like food insecurity, food deserts and school lunch programs.

Spectrum Bay News 9 asked Adam Basford with the Florida Farm Bureau what are some of the issues that his organization is looking at when the 2021 legislative rolls around. At the top of his list is continued funding for water quality projects, noting the work that went into Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Blue Green Algae Task Force recommendations that came out a year ago.

He’s optimistic about the long simmering issue between Florida growers and their Mexican counterparts. Florida farmers have contended for years that the fruit and vegetable industry has been undermined by produce subsidized by the Mexican government, giving them an unfair advantage in the U.S. 

Florida’s congressional delegation pushed the Trump administration to address that issue during the negotiations for the trade agreement (USMCA) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico that was officially signed into law by President Trump back in January, but didn’t get the results that they were hoping for.

Basford remains hopeful, saying “we’re grateful that those things are being looked at and addressed and hopefully we’ll get some relief here soon.” 

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s office released a report in July on the impacts of Mexico’s exports on Florida agricultural community, with the headline being that Florida’s share of the domestic U.S. market has dropped by 40% since 2000, while Mexico’s has expanded by 217% (a request for comment on Senator Rouson’s appointment in chairing the Senate’s Agriculture Committee was not returned). 

Other Tampa Bay area legislators pegged to lead Senate committees in the 2021 session include Pasco’s Danny Burgess leading the committee on Pandemic Preparedness and Response; St. Petersburg’s Jeff Brandes on Judiciary; Clearwaters’s Ed Hooper on Commerce and Tourism; Sarasota’s Joe Gruters leading Education and Bradenton’s Jim Boyd chairing the Banking and Insurance Committee.