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Ag Commissioner Candidate Brings His Message To Molino And Jay
April 7, 2009
Rep. Congressman Adam Putnam brought his campaign for Florida’s Agricultural Commissioner to Molino and Jay Monday afternoon.
Putnam said that many people in Florida do not realize that there is a cabinet level position for agriculture, and that is a problem, he said, because many people just don’t realize what the Florida’s ag commissioner does.
From weapons permits, to regulating the accuracy of gas pumps, to business regulation and much more — the Florida Department of Agriculture performs a wide array of services for Florida’s citizens in addition to regulating agriculture in the state.
Calling himself very pro-agriculture, Putnam told a small gathering of people from across North Escambia at Fran’s Diner in Molino that he is starting his campaign “one glass of sweet tea, one cup of coffee at the time”.
Food safety is a major issue in Florida agriculture, Putnam said, citing the recent recall of Florida tomatoes that were believed by the Food and Drug Administration to be the source of salmonella poising.
“We were not even producing tomatoes in Florida that time of the year,” Putnam said. “They (the FDA) refused to ask the commissioners of agriculture for help.”
Those recalls and mass media stories service to harm an industry like Florida’s tomato producers, he said.
“Each one of those scares is very bad for the producers and the consumers,” Putnam said. He said Florida’s ag industry has a sophisticated system in place that can trace a tomato in a restaurant, for instance, all the way back through the supplier to the date and time it was picked in a particular field.
Putnam has represented the people of Florida’s 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 2001, when at the age of 26 he became one of the youngest members of Congress in history. He has served in his party’s leadership and is a member of the Committee on Financial Services, which oversees all components of the nation’s housing and financial services sectors.
The election for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture will be in 2010.
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