By News Service of Florida
A wide-ranging “farm bill” that includes expanding the ability of farmers to pursue legal damages over the “disparagement” of agricultural products cleared its first Senate committee Tuesday.
The Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously approved the proposal (HB 290), which, in part, would expand to all agricultural products what is known as an “agricultural disparagement” law.
The law allows farmers and agriculture groups to pursue damages for “willful or malicious” public dissemination of false information about perishable food items not being safe for human consumption.
The expansion would go beyond perishable food items.
“There are some things that we produce in the state of Florida that aren’t perishable. They don’t fall under the statute,” committee Chairman Keith Truenow, a Tavares Republican who is sponsoring the bill, said after the meeting. “We want to include them, like sugar or some other products.”
The bill, which is backed by Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, also includes such things as preventing local bans on gas-powered farm and landscape equipment and directing the Department of Environmental Protection to determine if any state owned conservation lands purchased after January 1, 2024, are suitable for bona fide agricultural purposes.
The measure, which addresses numerous issues at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, also would prohibit commercial solicitation on properties with “no solicitation” signs, add criminal penalties for receiving or providing unauthorized assistance on commercial driver’s license exams and repeal a 2016 program designed to financially aid grocery stores in underserved or low-income communities.
A similar measure (HB 433) is sponsored in the House by Rep. Danny Alvarez, R-Hillsborough County, and Rep. Chad Johnson, R-Chiefland. The bills are filed for the 2026 legislative session, which will start Jan. 13.