My Podcast

 Speaker 01: 0:00

Welcome to the Legal Field Podcast. where we discuss legal and regulatory topics that are of critical importance to the agriculture industry. My name is Amanda Perry Carl, and I am an agricultural lawyer whose family has been farming in Florida since 1823, before Florida even became a state. I have spent almost 20 years as an attorney in the agricultural industry and have made it my mission to ensure that everyone in our incredible industry understands the legal and regulatory issues that we face so that we can keep feeding Florida, America, the world. So if you're a farmer, rancher, or grower, if you're involved in raising cattle, sheep, poultry, goats, hogs, horses, or other livestock, if you grow fruits, vegetables, or sod, if you are involved with the aquaculture, turfgrass, or horticulture industries, if you are fighting the good fight to help our citrus industry survive, or if you just like to eat and you appreciate our ag producers, this podcast is for you. If you are interested in protecting and preserving our agricultural heritage, lands, and way of life, then come join us in the legal field and see what's growing on. Hello and welcome to our first ever episode of the Legal Field Podcast. I am Amanda Perry Carl, and I am the host of the podcast. And today we are so excited that our very first guest of the Legal Field Podcast is a person who was very instrumental in even introducing me to the concept of being an agricultural lawyer and instrumental in the trajectory of my career, Dr. Michael Olexa. Dr. Olexa works at the University of Florida as a professor in both the College of Ag and an undergrad in the College of Ag and Life Sciences. And he also is the director of the UF IFAS Center for Ag and Natural Resources Law. So Dr. Olexa, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Speaker 00: 2:06

Well, my pleasure, Amanda. It's so good to see you again. It's always good to see a former student and looking forward to the podcast.

Speaker 01: 2:14

This is going to be awesome. Just as a little background on how I first got to know Dr. Olexa before we get into our questions. And our topics for today, I was a young undergrad student trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I had grown up in ag and knew I wanted to advocate for our amazing industry in some way, but had no clue what I was doing, what I wanted to do. And I was in the College of Ag and Life Sciences studying ag education and was introduced, I think it was at a tailgater in the O'Connell Center, the then O'Connell Center, And I came across the booth set up for the Ag Law minor, which at that time was really new. And I don't know how this many years have passed. You'll talk soon about how many years you've been doing the minor. I don't know how I'm that old and I've been practicing this long. But it was one of the first classes to go through. And in the first class I sat in, it was your Ag Law class on the backside of one of the McCarty buildings. I don't remember which one it was. And it was in that class that you inspired me to be an ag lawyer. So I want to thank you so much for that because it's been almost 20 years now of an incredible career because of your inspiration.

Speaker 00: 3:29

Well, thank you so much, Amanda.

Speaker 01: 3:32

And what McCarty building was that, that your ag law class was in for so many years?

Speaker 00: 3:36

That was McCarty A and McCarty B. For the past several years, most of my classes have been in McCarty A.

Speaker 01: 3:46

Okay. Yes, that class was just so wonderful, and I appreciate the trajectory of my career because of you. And it's been so satisfactory over these last almost two decades. I can't believe I've been practicing that long, but thank you for that. I want to chat first about your experiences in your career path, because everybody who ever has sat in any of your classes has enjoyed some awesome stories about your career and your about things that you've experienced. So can you tell all of our listeners and viewers a little bit about your career path and how you ended up at the University of Florida as a professor and director of this Ag Law program?

Speaker 00: 4:29

Well, you know, it's really a serendipitous type of a story. I was in the military, Navy at the time, and I had a friend of mine who since passed, Jack Saladini, who was getting his graduate degree here at the University of Florida in plant pathology. Jack and I grew up in the same town in West Virginia, and Jack said, look, why don't you come down and visit, which I did. Jack and I were about the same size. So Jack went ahead and let me his civvies, his civilian clothes. At that time, to be in uniform was, during the Vietnam War, it was a little different. So I walked around campus. I fell in love with the University of Florida. And I remember going up to the Plaza of the Americas and sitting, leaning up against a tree, sitting down, leaning up against a tree. And I said to myself, if everything works out, I want to come back here. So whenever I got out of the service, I took a job for a short period of time. I did save up some money. I had the GI Bill, and I applied and got accepted to graduate school here at the University of Florida. I put everything I had in the world into my sea bag in a stereo outfit and headed for Florida. And I got situated here. I went ahead and I got my master's degree in plant pathology and my doctorate degree in plant path with minors in mycology and entomology. While here, I was really excited to see Florida. I was in the fields down in South Florida, Immokalee, Belle Glade, as a plant pathologist, as a student, and also later on working on a postdoc. To make a long story short, I was linked up with a professor here in the Food and Resource Economics Department by the name of James Warshaw. He was just a phenomenal individual, and he was working on different issues that involved science and crops and what have you. I went ahead and I worked with him. I helped him. And I was still working in South Florida. My major professor in my graduate program was able to get me some work through the Army Corps of Engineers dealing with a study of biological control of water hyacinth and water hydrilla. One day, Jim Warshaw called me into his office and he says, you got to go to law school. And I said, look, I've got this PhD degree. I've, uh, I've got a career plan track. He says, look. He looked at me and he says, I'll pay for your law school education. And I said, look, I'm working. I'm working on this thing down in South Florida and all. So the long and short of it is I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to be beholden, but I still have the GI Bill. So I went ahead during that period of time and followed his advice. I was able to still work in the Everglades area. and attend a law school at Nova Southeastern University. I finished up there. I passed the bar. And then after passage of the bar, I was contacted again by Jim Warshaw and another individual by name of Grover Smart. And they had asked me if I could work on a grant because at the time I was planning on just getting involved in just sort of a general practice area. And I did a little bit of it. So to make a long story short, I went ahead and I says, what's the job? And he says, well, it's a job with the USDA. And that particular job is working with ag scientists and prepping them for cross-examination and what was then referred to as RPAR, Rebuttable Presumption Against Registration with Pesticide Assessment Reports. So that's how I got locked into the USDA and what was to be a one-year job. grant? Well, one year led into two years. Eventually, there was a new thing coming on board called biotechnology. And with the science degree and with the law degree, I was able to meld both careers together. And I was back in Washington, D.C. My boss was an Air Force colonel from the White House. And I got heavily involved. I was first serving as a national program leader in ag law in I was then sent to the Secretary of Agriculture's office as a policy advisor in biotechnology. Subsequently, for the next three years, that's what I was primarily engaged in. Then I met my wife up in Washington, D.C. I later found out she really didn't like cold weather. Sometimes I wondered whether or not that's why she married me, because she knew I was from Florida. But we've been married now. We got married in 1990, and my daughter, Hope, came along. And it's just been a wonderful career. But whenever I was in Washington, D.C., my mentor, unfortunately, Jim Warshaw, passed. And they had asked me if I could take his position in setting up in the Ag Law Center, which I did. And that went on for a few years. And then in 2008, I was contacted by the then vice president of IFAS. And I was asked if I could change the name of the center to reflect more of the natural resource issues, habitat protection in agriculture, And they went ahead and we opted. And with the provost blessings, we became the Center for Agricultural and Natural Resource Law. So to make a long story short, I never planned to go to law school, but things just sort of happened that way. And that's where I am today.

Speaker 01: 10:46

Sometimes God's plans are greater than our plans, and we just roll with it, and then we have no idea

Speaker 00: 10:51

why. That's exactly what I did. I rolled with it. I had a great deal of respect for Jim. As a matter of fact, a very close colleague and friend of mine was working for Jim at the time back in the 70s, and his name was Michael Minton. And I got to know Michael and we still, all of these individuals, I still keep in touch with. And I have so over the years, including former students.

Speaker 01: 11:19

Well, I'm glad that that's how your career path ended up, that you ended up going into law and going to law school, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have been introduced to the agricultural law program and doing what I do. So I am grateful that that's how your career path ended up. Are there any favorite parts of your career along that whole trajectory, whether it was in D.C.? And I know meeting your wife is probably one of your favorite parts of your whole career path that you'd like to share any particular stories or duties that you had that are your favorite.

Speaker 00: 11:53

Well, actually, there are several. Obviously, meeting my wife was paramount. In working at the federal level, I had the unique opportunity to work with a large number of different agricultural groups. The interesting thing about it was the background, the science, the STEM backgrounds in agriculture and the fact that I was a crop scout for a while. I really got... on my hands working out in the fields and whatnot. It really helped me. Being in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, talking with the sugar cane, or not the sugar cane, but the sugar beet people, the grain growers. all over the Midwest and the West, working with a lot of different agricultural commodity producers. Specifically, a lot of it had to do not only with pesticide assessment, but also this new and upcoming thing at the time was biotechnology. The position also took me for travel in the Western Pacific. where I worked on Guam with the Chamorros. We were dealing with endangered species protection and also a lot of the groundwater issues there because at that particular time, a lot of areas of Guam were being purchased for setting up golf courses, and there was concern about groundwater contamination there. So the position itself has connected me over the years with a large number of different agricultural groups and also 1862 and 1890 land-grant universities. So it's been a very, very blessed career for me because it's taken me to a lot of different venues around from the academic standpoint and also from the commercial standpoint.

Speaker 01: 14:05

It's also really neat to see how ag production is around the country and different crops. I think me being a native Floridian who has, you know, I've been here since I was born. My family's been here since 1823. We know our crops in Florida. We know how production goes in Florida, but it's really cool to travel the country. And as you've traveled the world, and see how things are so different. Water and water rights around the country and around the world are so different.

Speaker 00: 14:33

Oh yeah, there's no question about it. Florida, one thing that I love about working in Florida, we've got three temperate zones. You can go up into the panhandle and you're dealing with some of the Midwestern crops. You're dealing with peanuts. You're dealing with soybeans, grain crops. And then there's Central Florida as we're moving further and further south with citrus. Everything in the starfruit and other tropical plants as you get into the deep southern portions of the state of Florida. It's really, we are a minor crop state and there are so many challenges and issues in dealing with the number of these minor crops and also tremendous amounts of opportunities in different types of agricultural production and different types of agricultural production systems. And subsequently, that has just been a real, just a real fortunate thing for me to have experienced these different cropping systems here in the state of Florida.

Speaker 01: 15:39

Now, I want to, you used to always tell your classes about your story of meeting your wife while in D.C. Before we move on to talk about the Ag Law Center, can you share with our listeners and viewers how you guys met in D.C.??

Speaker 00: 15:50

Yes, I will. I have to go back to a dear friend of mine. He was here at the University of Florida getting a graduate degree in political science. He was also a veteran. He was a chopper pilot in NAM. He did two tours. Great guy. Well, he got accepted to the State Department. And he was going through State Department training in Washington, D.C. when I was about to travel up there. And he said, look, you're here. Let's go to an Irish pub. So we went to an Irish pub. And while in the Irish pub, there was a lady. She was there. They had an Irish dancing thing there. And I happened to look at her and You know, the word for female in Irish, if my memory is correct, is Colleen. So I looked at her and I says, well, tell me, Colleen, what do you think about the Irish dancing? A little bit of a broke there. Well, her name was Colleen. And it turns out the band that was playing, I'd requested a song, Black Velvet Band, and she had also requested the same song. So I told her I was from Florida. She told me she was interested in long-distance relationships. But one thing led to another, and we started seeing each other, and we eventually got married. And I owe it to my friend Bob, who decided to take me to Murphy's Pub in Alexandria, Virginia. That's where we met.

Speaker 01: 17:29

See, despite what everybody thinks, good things can happen in D.C., and good relationships can develop in D.C., right?

Speaker 00: 17:35

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker 01: 17:39

Now let's transition a little bit. I want to spend a lot of time talking about the Ag Law Center or the Center for Natural Resources and Agricultural Law. I'm old, so I keep flipping back to the old name, but I want to talk a lot about the center and what happens at the center, what the future is, some of the things that you do in the center, because I think it's so important for the states to have this robust relationship Center for Ag and Natural Resources Law at our land-grant university at UF. I talk to a lot more high school kids and young college kids who are interested in agricultural law more than ever before. So I think... Oh, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 00: 18:21

Well, one of the real interesting things about the center, we really... My appointment here is 70% teaching, 30% extension plus research. The faculty that are appointed here in the College of Agriculture have their appointments broken down into specific areas. That's my specific area. And I utilize both of them. The focus of the center, based on my appointment, really addresses two key areas, naturally teaching and naturally extension. As far as the teaching component is concerned, What we've been able to do with teaching in the year 2000, we established the undergraduate minor in agriculture and natural resource law. Prior to its establishment, the prior 10 years, we taught a couple of different courses in agricultural law, primarily the agricultural natural resource law. With the establishment of the undergraduate minor in ag and natural resource law, I teach the core courses, which is ag law and risk management and also agricultural and natural resource law. Those are the core courses. This is a 15-credit minor course. Six of them are the core courses, which I teach, and the remaining nine credit hours are primarily focused on policy courses and law courses. And I've got a list of some of the, just a couple of the policy courses and law courses could also include government regulation and food, water resource sustainability, U.S. food and agricultural policy. The students that complete the minor, and we've had over 500 students now that have completed the minor, it's a job getter. It really has given them an opportunity to hedge up over time. other individuals that are looking for jobs that are ag or, and I want to stress this, ag related here in Florida and other areas. About 15 to 20% of our students will go on to law school. And I've had students that have been accepted to law schools all over the country, Yale, University of Virginia, naturally the University of Florida, FSU, other law schools here in the state of Florida. The degree itself, the students that take the course, this does appear on their transcripts. So it'll appear on their transcripts, and once again, it has really helped these students get jobs. I had one student notify me that when he went in for a job interview in Tampa, as an example, the Well, not the hearing officer, but the hiring professional really got tied up and asking him questions about the minor. What were some of the courses? What did they pick up? And it's been a real plus for the students. And we've had some really, really great students that have completed the course and have done exceptionally well in the agricultural area and also in the political area.

Speaker 01: 21:53

And I know you've had some pretty notable alumni out of the program. Do you want to give some of those names to our viewers and listeners? Because you've had some really awesome alumni come through the program.

Speaker 00: 22:06

Well, you know, one of the things that have really made my career for me is seeing what my students have done. I've done a lot of different things in my life, but I've thoroughly enjoyed teaching. And over the years, I've had some great students yourself. It's just a classic example of what the courses that we've done here through the Center for Ag and Natural Resource Law, the catalyst that it's been able to provide for students. Some of the students we have, I have one student who's currently in Congress, Greg Steube, and I still stay in touch with Representative Steube. As a matter of fact, I ran into him at a bar meeting here a couple of years ago, but we do stay in touch. A former student who I met during the 100th anniversary of Alpha Gamma Rho is Adam Putnam. We've had Chad Johnson, who's currently a legislative representative in Tallahassee with District 22. Steven Hall, former general counsel of the Florida Department of Ag and Consumer Services. Robert Angus Williams, he was former general counsel of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Then we have Noah Valenstein. He was a former secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Stacey Sims, uh, She's chief operating officer of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation. Then we have James Spratt, owner of Magnolia Strategies. Now, one thing that I do want to say, there's two real good stories I'd like to share with you, if I may.

Speaker 01: 23:49

Absolutely.

Speaker 00: 23:50

Number one, any of my students that have been deployed that were an active military and were deployed overseas, I always made it a point to keep in touch with them and to get them care packages. Greg Steube is a classic example of that. Jim Spratt, at one point, his father was in the Florida legislature. And there's a... There's a great hot sauce. I love hot sauces, one of which is called Gator Hammock Hot Sauce, manufactured in Felda, Florida. And I used to drive through Felda when I was working in the Florida Everglades. And I believe it was Buddy Taylor Gator Hammock Hot Sauce. And I happened to mention to Jim that I wanted to get some overseas. His father brought up a case of Gator Hammock Hot Sauce. I wrapped it up. got it up to Fort Benning, Georgia and got it out. So these are just the kind of things that I've enjoyed doing and working with my students over the years.

Speaker 01: 24:57

That's awesome. And you know, that goes to the kind of person you are and why your students have always respected you so much because you have always been there truly to help and support your students, to help us with our career paths, to help us figure out what we want to do and to help the ag industry. You've been such a huge, asset to the ag industry in general throughout your entire career. And what I think is super notable about your alumni that you listed is some of those went into the legal practice. Some of them went into making laws into the legislature. And then Jim Spratt has gone into lobbying the legislature and making of laws. So it's pretty cool to see the list of some of your most notable students that have come through in so many different aspects of legal, lawmaking, lobbying for lawmaking.

Speaker 00: 25:48

And you know, one of the real neat things for the 20 years that I've taught, and again, I'm phasing out at the law school, I am looking towards retirement, and I also want to make sure that before I retire, we have the Center for Ag and Natural Resource Law well set, not only in endowments and funding, but I want my successor to come in and really do a great job and have everything ready before I walk out. But I've had a number of law students that have been introduced to us. to agricultural law and the importance of agriculture to the state of Florida, not only from the standpoint of agricultural production, but a lot do not fully understand the significance of agricultural lands as far as habitat protection, endangered species protection, water retention. There are so many different aspects of it, and many of them do not understand that 3.8 million acres in the state of Florida are privately owned. This is extremely important. It's also extremely important for the preservation of agriculture and preservation of agricultural lands in the state of Florida. It is one of the few... areas that can, uh, that is in constant reproduction, reproducing itself in crop production, in habitat protection, in water recharge areas and whatnot. And as I tell a lot of my, I had one individual who, uh, whose son decided to be in a college of agriculture, called me up and he said, look, I, I, all you guys are nothing but cows and plows. So I spend, uh, 40 minutes educating him on some of the deep aspects of agriculture, that it's big, that it's broad, that it's basic. It reaches into all aspects of society and the significance and importance of it. And I think a lot of this really, really came true because I know whenever I taught at the law school, the first thing I would ask my students, do you consider yourself civilized? Let me see your show of hands. All hands went up. My next comment was, what do you think would happen if you were cut off from the food supply for two weeks, and especially those of you with children? And what really struck me was driving by a number of these large supermarkets in Florida during the COVID epidemic and seeing people in long lines, six feet apart, waiting to get into those supermarkets to buy basic food staples. Agriculture truly is our life support system in this country. It really is.

Speaker 01: 28:45

It's funny that you say that. During COVID, as I was usually out there in front of the Walmart at 645 on Saturday morning waiting to get in to get food for five boys who were hungry, I actually thought about your opening line in our ag law class at the law school and how many of those students at the law school in that class, to your point, had no background in ag. They had no idea what the agricultural industry looked like. And it was great at the end of that course, at the end of that semester, to see some of my classmates who knew nothing about agriculture come out of your ag law class with a much better understanding and appreciation. And I think that class at the law school is so important because you are reaching a very different group of students. Most of them don't have an ag background. And I think that's so important.

Speaker 00: 29:32

Right. And not only that, but many of them will, and many of them are right now, with sole and small firm sections. There was silk stocking for the larger firms here in the state of Florida. In addition to that, they're actively involved politically. And they understand that the big, broad, and basic nature of agriculture and exactly how important we are. Also, during times of difficult economic times with recessions, it's agriculture that literally keeps a lot of the lights on here in the state of Florida. Very, very important.

Speaker 01: 30:11

Those of us who had to go to work every day still and were lucky to still go to work every day were those working for ag companies, that we were deemed essential. And I think a lot of people saw that during COVID of what was deemed essential, and it's agriculture feeding America, feeding the state, feeding the world.

Speaker 00: 30:29

Well, you know, if I may just share one more story with you, I was raised, well, about eight years, well, actually, even before eight years, I was a small boy on my grandmother's subsistence farm. My grandmother survived World War I in Europe. She was cut off from her husband who had come to the States and later a war broke out. I saw my grandmother at one point when I was a small boy drop a slice of bread on the ground. She picked up that bread and she kissed it and then fed it to the birds. Years later, I asked my Aunt Helen, who was living in Tampa, I shared that story with her. My Aunt Helen and my Uncle John survived in Europe during World War I with my grandmother. And she told me at one point they were starving to death. And they were crying. She and my Uncle John were crying. They didn't have enough to eat. And my grandmother was crying. My grandmother held out her arms and said to them, this is all I have for you to eat. And what really struck me about that a few years later when I was watching an old movie rerun of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, who, by the way, was a native West Virginian. I have to say that. But I do consider myself a Floridian. But the bottom line is the movie that was made in the 1930s, before my time, Paul Mooney was the actor. He received the Academy Award for that movie. And there's a scene in the movie, if my recollection is correct, where there are two men pulling a yoke because the Austin had been slain. There's famine in China. And one individual looks at the other individual and he says, I hear there's going to be a revolution. And the other individual looks at him and says, what is revolution? And the response is, I do not know, but it has something to do with food. You cannot have a constitutional republic. You cannot have a democratic form of government with a lot of hungry people. Agriculture is so significantly important to this country. That's who we are.

Speaker 01: 32:46

Absolutely. And it's it's a national security issue, too. You know, like to your point, I think a lot of people don't realize that it is so critical. It's critical to our state as we see so much development in the state of Florida. We need those lands. We need the wildlife corridor to be intact. We need our ranch lands, our farmlands and to feed our state. And I think that the College of Ag in general does a great job of helping this and promote this and educate people on this that comes through the College of Ag. And I think that the center does an absolutely amazing job. As we have a few minutes left here, I want to make sure that I give you enough time to talk about the future of the center, what your future plans look like. I want to talk a little bit about what you want to do in retirement before we end. So what do you need for the center? How can people help if they want to help to keep this continuing after your retirement?

Speaker 00: 33:43

Well, really, the key here is finding Naturally, it'd be funding and endowments just to keep the lights on and to keep things moving. Whenever Jim Warshaw established the center in 1981, it was established by the Florida Board of Regents as a type three non-funded center. So all the operations of the center are non-funded. Only what we can achieve through endowments like the Warshaw and the Mitten endowments and also fundraising contributes from individuals. And subsequently, through our teaching efforts and also through our extension efforts in publishing through the electronic data information source, we have a large number of agricultural law publications out there. They deal with a variety of issues, land use, farm and ranch property rights, etc., tree falls responsibilities for tree owners, etc., It's all out there, but that's what we really need to keep things going. And we've been able to keep things going for a very, very long time. And subsequently, there have been some great benefactors, one up in Live Oak, Ernest Sellers and others that have been such great such a key and they are so strongly focused on the importance and also the importance of our younger people and our teaching efforts and our extension efforts as well.

Speaker 01: 35:21

And we'll make sure to include at the end of this podcast links for that as well. So if people want to go to the website and go to those links, they can locate that information as well because this really is, it's critical for our state, for our industry to to educate folks as they come through. And like I said, the ag law class at the law school, I think, is always phenomenal because it reaches students outside the College of Ag as well. And I think it really educates a totally different group of students that then go out into the legal practice, into the state of Florida, other states, as they disperse and it spreads that information and that importance of our industry.

Speaker 00: 35:57

Yeah, and I will say that we're getting students now from colleges all over the University of Florida campus. Now, the website itself, if they can Google the Center for Agricultural and Natural Resource Law, and there's a little site there, Support Center. Just click on that. It'll take you to another screen, which is similar to the first screen, where it just says Center for Agricultural and Natural Resource Law, and the donation window is there. I will also say that we're in the process right now of updating the website, and they can also contact The UF IFAS Foundation, we're currently working with some wonderful people in the UF IFAS Foundation for fundraising. They can also contact them as well.

Speaker 01: 36:47

That is awesome. And I know you're looking to retire at some point in the near future so you can enjoy some time doing some other fun things. Can you talk to our listeners a little bit about what you plan to do in retirement after retirement? A long career, a very well-earned retirement.

Speaker 00: 37:04

Well, there's really two things. I now have two grandchildren, Grace and Michael. I want to spend a little bit of time with them. I want them to know who their grandfather is before I buy the farm. That's an expression that we used in the service. The other thing that I want to do, I want to fish. I spent my master's degree work. I lived in the lighthouse out on Seahorse Key. I got to know all the old conks out there. I've got my own cast nets. I love to fish. I want to get out and do a little more fishing. The other thing that I want to do is I want to volunteer. I mentioned to you earlier that I've always sent care packages to any of my students that were in active military overseas, especially in the combat zones. What I want to do, I'm a member of the American Legion and also a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans. We have a wonderful VA hospital here in Gainesville, Florida. I want to volunteer with Veterans Affairs and And I'll be traveling back and forth from Texas. I've got a lot of relatives in Texas. They settled there back in the 1800s. But I'd like to visit with my daughter and get involved out there as well. That, for me, is very, very important.

Speaker 01: 38:28

The time spent with grandkids is so worth it. You will not regret retiring and going and spending time with your grandkids. And they will be so lucky to have the time spent with you and the memories that they will have for their entire life.

Speaker 00: 38:43

Yeah, as a matter of fact, my daughter, my daughter Hope was always asking me to write up some stories and I've already written some up. I want to make sure that I'm going to put a little notebook together and give it to her as a gift.

Speaker 01: 38:59

My granny is now 96 and I'm actually taking the boys tomorrow to my dad's house over in Marion County. And we're going to go pick some peanuts in his garden. And my granny is so excited to come over and help. She's got her oxygen tank, but she's wanting to come over and help. So we're taking the boys over tomorrow to do that. And so time spent with their great grandmother at 96 is just so important and so critical. So they are excited to go and spend time with her and pick peanuts with her. And I know that time spent with your grandkids will be some of the most core memories they'll ever have.

Speaker 00: 39:39

Oh, yeah. And one thing that I have learned, and I'm sure those that will be watching this podcast would agree with me 100%, they grow up so fast. They do. Blink, and they're grown up. I cannot believe I'm a grandfather. It just seems like I just brought our daughter back from Shands when she was born. But here it is all these years later and it goes by so very, very quickly.

Speaker 01: 40:05

It does. It seems like we just adopted our boys and the oldest was seven and now he's almost 13 and a half and turning into a man. And I don't know when that happened to the little boys that we adopted five and a half years ago.

Speaker 00: 40:18

Yeah. And whenever they hit that teenage years, there's like a button that's pushed. Then they'll come back to you. I remember a quote by Mark Twain who said, when I was 18 years old, I thought my old man was the dumbest person on earth. And when I turned 21, I was amazed at how much he had learned in three years. That's it. But they'll come back around. They'll come back around. So

Speaker 01: 40:45

true. Well, do you have any last things you'd like to say to our listeners or viewers about the center, about the industry in general, about any of your experiences, any final words you'd like to give to our listeners?

Speaker 00: 40:59

Yeah, I really believe in my research, in my heart, that what we're really looking at here is some incredible, incredible days ahead as far as innovative sciences and what agriculture is doing in the way of environmental protection through such things as genetically modified organisms where you can extract, you can plant plants, plants in arid soils and still crop production, medicinal type of plants. It can be used as a nutrient supplements and whatnot. We are just, we are just, opening up a new vista in agriculture and what's available out there and what the future generations are going to be able to experience. And not only experience, but also develop. Develop new agricultural technologies, new means of production, even in the inner cities as far as... bringing communities together with urban gardens and what have you. The future of agriculture here in Florida and nationwide is just, in my belief, I just wish I could live to be 200 years old to see it, but it's there and it's going to open up more and more and more. And I know that UF IFAS is innovative. It's the things that we're doing through UF IFAS, the research and education centers around the state of Florida. And it's just going to open us up into an incredible future. We've got some challenges. Cleaning is a real problem, but we're going to overcome that. And in the end, we're going to have just a new vista in agriculture for the state of Florida. I just wish I could be live long enough to see it, but we all have our moment in time.

Speaker 01: 43:02

Well, I want to thank you so much for being here today on the podcast. I know I can speak for all of your students and former students at how grateful we are for all of your work at the Center for all of these years and at UF-IFAS. You have inspired so many students, generations of students, and I just want to thank you for all of your time investing in your students and for your time with us here today.

Speaker 00: 43:25

Well, I certainly appreciate it. And if I've missed any students with my earlier discussion, mea culpa and my apologies. There's just so many wonderful students that have been through the program. And that in our extension outreach through our publications is what we're really all about, especially focusing in on the future and the future of agriculture here in the state of Florida.

Speaker 01: 43:49

It's bright. It definitely is. Thank you so much.

Speaker 00: 43:54

And thank you, Amanda. It's good to see you again.

Speaker 01: 43:56

You too. It's always good to see you. Thank you for listening to the Legal Field Podcast. For more content, please visit the Facebook page of Florida Ag Law or go to floridaaglaw.com and join us next time on the Legal Field Podcast to see what's growing on.