TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet unanimously approved the request of two agriculture companies Wednesday to allow them to renew their leases to farm state land in exchange for them swapping other parcels for Everglades clean-up efforts.
Scott, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater ignored concerns of environmental groups across the state that the conditions of the leases to A. Duda & Sons and Florida Crystals were overly generous and would limit the state’s options for cleaning up the Everglades in the future.
The environmentalists urged the Cabinet to slow down and re-negotiate a shorter-term lease that gives the state the options it may need if the restoration projects require more land. But Melissa Meeker, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, told the Cabinet there would be no need for their land.
"The parcels where the leases are so far outside where any potential project would be…far from any footprint where we would be looking for any projects,’’ she said. "We feel very confident that we have the land we need.’’
The environmental groups said they will take their appeal to the water management district board, which must approve the lease agreements.
"We still hope they will reduce the length of the lease,’’ said Charles Pattison of 1000 Friends of Florida. He said that if the state decides it needs additional land covered under the leases, it could be on the hook to pay the growers for lost income from farming.
The sugar companies argued that every acre of land that remains in farming — including state land — equals jobs for their employees.
"Every time we take land out of production it costs jobs,’’ said Gaston Cantens, vice president of Florida Crystals. "Everyone likes to beat up on us."
