The announcement was made at a news conference at Coca-Cola’s juice production plant in Auburndale.

Coca-Cola will buy fruit from two growers: Peace River Citrus Products in Vero Beach and Cutrale Citrus, one of Brazil’s top growers and juice processors.

Cutrale Citrus’ entrance to Florida as a grower is significant, said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

“The fact that one of the dominant Brazilian players will now have an ownership stake in actual production in Florida is a tremendous development,” Putnam said.

Coca-Cola owns the Minute Maid and Simply juice brands and already buys juice from Cutrale in Brazil. Coca-Cola is also a significant juice processor in Florida – Tuesday’s news conference was held at the largest juice bottling plant in the United States.

Some 5 million new trees will be planted in the new groves, believed to be the largest citrus addition in the state for at least 25 years. The groves will be located in Polk, DeSoto and Hendry counties in central Florida.

“It’s an investment in a market that’s very important to us,” said Steve Cahillane, the president of Coca-Cola Americas.

Analysts say that the announcement intensifies the juice wars between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which owns the Tropicana brand.

“This shows Coke’s commitment both to the Florida citrus business and the future of its own juice business,” said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest.

Sicher said that consumers have a growing interest in juice beverages because they are seeking products with “health, wellness and natural attributes.”

“Citrus juices hit those criteria and make juices a potential category for growth,” he said.

Coca-Cola officials said that Simply juice counted $1.2 billion in annual sales.

Company officials say the new groves and resulting juice production are expected to add about 4,100 jobs to Florida’s economy.

The move also is seen as a boost to historically declining acreage devoted to citrus production in Florida. During the state’s past housing boom, many citrus farmers sold their land to developers. Since 1997, total citrus acreage has fallen by 25 percent, from 600,000 acres to 450,000 acres, because of the disease, pests and other pressures, according to Florida Citrus Mutual.

Coca-Cola officials said that the Florida Citrus Commission is working on an economic study centered on the company’s investment, and that a preliminary draft shows that over the course of 25 years the expansion will add more than $10.5 billion – or $422 million per year – to Florida’s economy. Company officials said Coca-Cola buys a third of all Florida oranges.

Coca-Cola reported its first-quarter results in mid-April; they topped Wall Street expectations as sales volume rose in emerging markets. Shares of Coca-Cola Co. rose nearly 6 percent to $42.37 and touched their highest point since the late 1990s.

Cahillane said the company also purchases juice from Brazil, Florida’s biggest competitor in the juice industry. He said different harvest times in each location allow the company to give customers “consistent, great-tasting juice.” About 90 percent of Florida’s oranges are used for juice; by contrast, the majority of California’s orange crop is sold as fresh fruit. Florida is second in the world for orange juice production, behind Brazil.

Jose Luis Cutrale, the chief executive officer of Cutrale Citrus Juices, spoke at Tuesday’s announcement and is considered the patriarch of the Brazilian juice industry. He owns one of the biggest juice companies in the world.

“We are going to do more juice and sell more juice,” he said. “People need it.”

Under the program, Cutrale and Peace River Citrus will each plant 12,500 acres. Coca-Cola will buy the fruit.

Bill Becker, president of Peace River Citrus Products in Vero Beach, is one of the growers. He said the new trees will be planted on land that once held citrus groves or are currently idle.

“It’s a big help to the entire industry and to the state, for that matter,” said Becker, adding that the research being done in Florida about the deadly citrus greening disease has bolstered the company’s confidence in the long-term health of the state’s citrus industry.

Becker said he hopes that Coca-Cola’s investment will reverse the trend of declining citrus acreage in Florida.

The state’s citrus crop suffered huge losses this past season due to warm, dry weather, too much fruit on each tree and citrus greening disease.

According to the Florida Citrus Mutual, the citrus industry directly and indirectly contributes some 76,000 jobs in Florida and is a $10 billion industry.

By TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press

Dubbed “Fresh from Florida” and largely funded from the state’s financial settlement with energy giant BP after its 2010 Gulf oil spill, the innovative TV-based campaign began in late May, with 15- and 30-second commercials airing in all 10 of the state’s media markets.

Susan Nardizzi, FDA’s division director of marketing and development, spearheaded development of the program.

“The department had never done any statewide media advertising,” said Nardizzi, a veteran national advertising executive recruited by the Florida Agriculture Commissioner early last year to head FDA’s marketing and promotional efforts. “They had done things like magazine advertising or a little bit of outdoor advertising or sponsorship deals with colleges and universities. But it had never been looked at as a major marketing campaign.”

Given Commissioner Adam Putnam’s goal of more aggressive promotion of fresh local food products, Nardizzi and her team designed a so-called “push-pull campaign” intended to expand retail distribution by also driving increased consumer demand.

Developed under the auspices of a 1990 statute that created an original Florida agricultural promotional campaign (FAPC) and the “Fresh from Florida” branding initiative, FDA already had in place incentive programs with major supermarket retailers.

The new campaign added direct consumer advertising.

The effort began late last year with a series of consumer focus groups aimed at women 35-54, in households with at least $70,000 in annual income.

“During the focus groups, we discovered that people wanted healthy recipes that were quick and easy to prepare,” said Donna Watson, FDA’s supervisor of media. “But we also found that they were tired of making the same recipes over and over again and that they wanted something they felt was unique. So that became the foundation of the campaign.”

“And because we were promoting fresh seafood, fruits and vegetables and fun recipes for preparing them, we decided to take a visual route and focus primarily on TV advertising,” Watson said.

Nardizzi explained that the campaign was intended to be educational as well as product-and-sales oriented. “The goal,” she said, “was to drive ‘Fresh from Florida’ as a brand and also really educate people about the amount of fresh produce and seafood available to them in their local supermarket from Florida producers.”

The effort was also developed with strong support from Florida farmers, fishermen and seafood harvesters, including organizations such as Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, Nardizzi said. “Over the years,” Nardizzi said, “all of those groups have been saying ‘We need more visibility in the marketplace. We need more brand identity. We need money to put behind advertising.’ So this was an opportunity to deliver that on behalf of the state’s producers.”

After a statewide creative search and competitive bidding process, FDA hired Ft. Lauderdale-based Kreative Kontent to product the four TV spots. Media planning and buying was handled by Chernoff-Newman in Maitland.

The initial TV advertising schedule launched in March will run through June 3. A subsequent flight is planned for late this year. FDA is now working with the state’s major grocery retailers to coordinate the best timing, based on seasonally-driven products and recipes.

Meanwhile, the current TV campaign will be translated into spots aimed at the Hispanic market and launching in the Miami market this month (May).

Next up is a digital effort geo-targeted to Floridians on major food web sites including FoodNetwork.com, MyRecipes.com and BlogHer.com.

A related magazine advertising campaign that reaches outside the state began last November, including in the national publication Garden & Gun. Other magazines on the media schedule include Coastal Living and food publications such as Every Day with Rachel Ray.

Based on the success of the initial effort, Nardizzi said, the campaign could be expanded in the future to include the state’s horticulture products, which represent the state’s #1 non-food export.

“We have been talking to representatives of that industry about a promotional partnership,” Nardizzi said. “And we have also been looking at other food commodities, such as chicken. Based on the results we’ve gotten from this first campaign, we see this as an ongoing effort.”

For more information and recipes, visit FreshFromFlorida.com.

BY JOHN BUCHANAN
Published: May 1, 2013

The state registry allows Florida residents to opt out of phone calls from telemarketers and most other solicitors.

“The statewide Do Not Call list is an overwhelming success,” Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said. “By eliminating the cost to consumers, we’re able to protect even more Floridians from bothersome and sometimes deceptive calls.”

Before the fee was eliminated on April 23, 2012, the list contained 71,460 off-limits phone numbers; as of Monday, there were 464,047 subscribers.

A bill passed by the Legislature last year allowed Putnam’s department to eliminate the fees for residents who wanted to be on the Do Not Call list. The cost of administering the program was partly offset by an increase in the financial penalties for violating the Do Not Call statute.

Anyone wishing to add a number to the list may call 1-800-435-7352 or, for Spanish speakers, 1-800-352-9832; residents may also sign up online at http://www.800helpfla.com.

The state’s Do Not Call list is updated quarterly and available to solicitors upon request. It is illegal for solicitors to make telephone calls to phone numbers on the list.

April 23, 2013|By Ned Popkins, Orlando Sentinel

The House agreed Wednesday, passing a bill 116-0, to require the nation’s three consumer reporting agencies to allow Florida parents or guardians to open a credit record for their child — and then freeze it. That would prevent others from using that child’s personal information to open fraudulent accounts or file fake federal tax returns for a refund, Putnam said.

“It’s going to protect every child in the state,” said HB493′s sponsor, state Rep. Heather Dawes Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers.

She agrees with Putnam that children need to be protected just as much as adults do. Both the state and South Florida No. 1 in the nation for identity theft.

Just in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, nearly 1,800 children’s identities were stolen in 2011 – a year before the Federal Trade Commission has since found that incidents of ID theft has more than doubled in South Florida, estimated Brian Zimmer, a consumer advocate fighting identity theft. He based his estimate on federal data.

Even infants’ identities have been stolen – with families not realizing it until years later when the kids are starting to apply for credit cards, said Zimmer, director of the newly created website IDChildNow.com.

“Unfortunately, this is a very serious problem in Florida,” said Putnam in an interview Wednesday, estimating the number of children’s stolen IDs growing threefold in the state in the last eight years, particularly for children under 5 years old.

The full House voted quickly Wednesday to pass HB493. A similar bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice.

“We have had no opposition to this point and we believe this is a strong bill that protects consumers,” said Erin Gillespie, spokeswoman for Putnam’s office. “We certainly hope it passes.”

If passed, it would be the second such law in the nation, giving parents more power to control their children’s personal information, Rep. Fitzenhagen said. A similar bill was made into law in Maryland last year.

A consumer anti-ID theft group approves of the tighter controls on children’s identities.

“We think this is the right kind of legislation,” said Zimmer of IDChildNow.org. “This is very straightforward. It’s non-controversial for all political persuasions. I would love to see more of this.”

Current policies make it “extremely easy to steal children’s identities and get away with it for years,” he added.

People steal children’s identities to apply for credit cards and jobs. Some thieves use the stolen Social Security numbers to file for federal tax returns to get refunds, Zimmer added.

In 2010, a former Monarch High social studies teacher in Coconut Creek pleaded guilty to applying for 17 credit cards using the identities of former students at Monarch or Plantation High that she stole from them after they filled out community service forms.

Sheyla Diaz never actually used the cards with her attorney telling her sentencing judge that her conscience prevented her. She was then sentenced to six months on house arrest.

April 18, 2013|By Donna Gehrke-White, Sun Sentinel

Florida’s environment, economy and quality of life all depend on water. If we want to continue to attract businesses and draw tourists while protecting our environment, we must ensure we have the water supply to meet our needs, not just today, but for our future.

Fortunately, there are solutions. We’ve already taken several steps to protect our available water supply and reduce our water use, where possible, through thoughtful conservation measures. As a result of efforts led by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to help agricultural producers implement best practices and use new technologies, Florida agriculture is using less water now than at any time in the past while, at the same time, increasing productivity and efficiency.

The latest irrigation technologies dramatically reduce water use and, when combined with new computerized tools, make it possible for producers to control their irrigation systems over the Internet or with a smartphone. The agriculture department also deploys mobile irrigation labs to advise farmers on how to improve their irrigation system efficiency and irrigation scheduling. Across the state, more than 9 million acres of farm, ranch and nursery lands are taking advantage of the programs the department offers to protect and conserve water resources.

Florida’s farmers should be applauded for their efforts. Because of their hard work and investment, they’ve been able to save nearly 11 billion gallons of water each year. Local communities and public water supply utilities have also implemented successful conservation programs and water reuse projects that are making a difference.

But conservation and reuse alone will not be enough.

The next step must be to explore sources of water that won’t deplete. We must find ways to grow our water supply from sources that are resistant to drought and shortage. Simply put, our water supply options must become more diverse.

Droughtproof water supplies, like seawater desalination, should be more aggressively pursued and included in water planning as future sources of Florida’s water supply. The collection and storage of water for groundwater recharge and as an alternative source of water should continue to be encouraged with incentives to attract private landowner participation.

I am urging policymakers, water utilities, local officials, agricultural producers, business leaders and all Floridians to be proactive and innovative as they consider new water sources and technologies.

A sustainable vision for Florida’s future will require a more comprehensive, long-term water policy and a mechanism to fund it. It will champion the combination of water conservation and innovative alternative water sources. It will ensure all Floridians that water will not become the crisis that today’s leaders failed to prevent.

Adam H. Putnam is Florida’s commissioner of agriculture. He wrote this exclusively for the Tampa Bay Times.

But this week, Florida celebrates 500 years since Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in St. Augustine while searching — as legend has it — for the Fountain of Youth. On April 2, 1513, Ponce de Leon became the first European to discover the land where Native Americans had already lived for centuries. He called this land La Florida.

People outside of Florida know our state as the land of hanging chads, early-bird buffets, Mickey Mouse, Hogwarts and Shamu. But there’s a lot they don’t know.

Every school child in America learns that the Pilgrims celebrated the nation’s first Thanksgiving meal at Plymouth Rock. Yet more than 50 years before that, in 1565, Spanish settlers shared a harvest meal with Native Americans in Florida. Pocahontas was immortalized in a Disney film, but more than 40 years before she saved John Smith, Pedro Menendez de Aviles — the first Governor of Florida — negotiated a truce with the Calusa tribe by marrying the king’s sister.

Texas is known as the land of the cowboys, but Florida was the first place in the New World to have horses and cows, and the cowboys that came with them. Brought over by explorers and settlers from the Old World, we now know these animals as the original Cracker Horse and Cracker Cattle breeds.

Florida put the first man on the moon. Every manned American space flight launched from our the coast, first from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and, since 1968, from the John F. Kennedy Space Center. The more than 150 launches have put Americans in space, in orbit, at the International Space Station and on the moon.

Our sunny weather, beaches, theme parks and expansive state and national parks make us a vacation spot for snowbirds, spring breakers, ecotourists and Orlando-bound families. We are equal parts five-seashells-for-a-dollar, airboat tours of the Everglades, mouse ears emblazoned with your name and butterbeer.

Now, 500 years after Ponce de Leon set foot in the New World, we are the international destination of choice. As the gateway to Latin America, and within reach of the Panama Canal, Florida continues to welcome foreign cultures and foreign goods. Our 18 international airports and 15 deepwater ports bring in more than $71 billion in goods and ship out $66 billion of American-made products every year.

More than 2 million small businesses call Florida home. We also have 16 Fortune 500 companies whose combined revenues are more than $200 billion. Our state is diverse — culturally, linguistically and economically. We have more to offer than just a place to visit or retire. Our plentiful land and limitless horizons continue to draw people from around the country and around the world.

Five hundred years of chasing — and finding — dreams has defined Florida. Today, it is still the place for young and old to pursue their own, personal fountain of youth.

(Miami Herald, Tampa Tribune, Tallahassee Democrat, St. Augustine Record, News-Press and Lakeland Ledger)

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House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, laughed off the suggestion that Scott’s Medicaid proposal is the governor’s “Obama hug” moment.

“I think the governor and I are working very closely on a lot of issues; he’s doing a good job for Florida, but that doesn’t mean we have to have unanimity on all issues,” said Weatherford on Thursday before an appearance at the Florida Retail Federation at the Hotel Duval in Tallahassee.

The GOP has often made light of former governor Charlie Crist’s literal embrace of President Obama during a visit in 2009.

The image of the hug was replayed often as Crist eventually moved from the GOP to continue his 2010 failed bid for U.S. Senate as an independent.

The campaign for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, portrayed the hug as more than a courtesy greeting, painting the embrace as support for the $767 billion in deficit spending.

When Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat endorsed Obama last August, Weatherford alluded to the hug during a speech at the Florida delegation breakfast as part of the Republican National Convention.

“I didn’t know a hug could be that powerful,” Weatherford said last August.

Now Weatherford, as with other GOP House leaders, remains skeptical of Scott’s stunning proposal on Wednesday that he would ask legislators to approve a bill that expands Medicaid for three years, as long as the program remains 100 percent funded by the federal government.

But he said he views Scott’s proposal as a “policy initiative.”

The proposal could add about 1 million people to the Medicaid rolls in Florida by expanding the eligibility to individuals and families earning up to 138 percent of poverty, a projection that has been estimated to cost Florida between $3 billion and $8.9 billion over the next decade — depending upon the source.

Weatherford deflected consideration about running for governor in 2014, saying he had enough on his plate at the moment running the House.

Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, while noting that it will only take one chamber of the legislature to block the state’s acceptance of the Medicaid expansion, called Weatherford the “future of Florida” and potential occupant of the Governor’s Mansion.

“My political future is to host a fundraiser for Will Weatherford for governor,” Gaetz said. However before the comment could linger, Gaetz quickly added, “but not in 2014 probably. But soon thereafter.”

Meanwhile, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, often called a future gubernatorial candidate, tweeted Thursday he was disappointed “to learn that Florida may take on billions in additional costs to taxpayers by expanding Medicaid coverage.”

“The expansion of Medicaid in FL does not create jobs or strengthen any. And it will cost Floridians $5B over the next 10 years,” Putnam added in a follow-up tweet.

Speaking to the Florida Retail Federation, Weatherford wouldn’t say how he’d vote, adding he expects to hear from his Select Committee on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act within 10 days on a direction for the House.

But he also gave a picture of where his skepticism comes from on the federal government’s proposal to cover the increased costs for three years.

“This is the same federal government that is going to argue for the next 30 to 60 days about whether or not they should raise the debt ceiling,” Weatherford said.

“This is the same federal government that is going to argue about whether or not we should have a sequester. This is the same federal government that will argue whether or not we should still spend $1.2 trillion more than we take in every single year.”

Earlier on Thursday, Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, reflected the comments of Weatherford in saying the Legislature must be measured in reviewing Scott’s proposal.

“Personally, I remain skeptical but that is the right position for the state to go in,” McKeel said Thursday morning.

The chairman of the select committee, Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, had earlier stated that his committee “has and will continue to have separate discussions on that issue and will make a principled recommendation in the best interest of all Floridians.”

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“It is naive at best to think that you would enroll 1 million people in three years and then decide to walk away from the program,” he said in an interview with Buzz, referring to Scott’s proposal to undo the expansion if the federal government withdraws money or if the Legislature chooses not to renew it.

Without using Scott’s name, Putnam implied Scott made his decision for political reasons.

“I think we all have an obligation to look beyond the window of our own time in public life and think about the longterm impact of these policies in Florida,” he said.

Is Putnam’s outspokenness on this issue a sign of a 2014 primary challenge? He would not say for sure.

“This isn’t a conversation about politics or campaigns. This is a question about what the most responsible fiscal policy for Florida is.”

Buzz pressed again. “This is a conversation about healthcare and healthcare costs. It’s not a conversation about individuals or personalities.”

Putnam said the state’s current safety net already provides enough care for the neediest families.

“I’ve seen how issues like this explode in cost once they becone an accepted part of policy. And it’s just simply not realistic to think you would enroll over 1 million new people into a program that you would then end in three years,” he said. “History would suggest otherwise.”

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House GOP leaders appear to have the strongest reservations, with Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Appropriations Chairman Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, publicly expressing doubts about the wisdom of the expansion.

“I remain skeptical that that’s in the best interests of the state,” McKeel said Thursday morning.

Weatherford, during an appearance before the Florida Retail Federation and in a television interview, also repeatedly used the word “skeptical.” Pointing to broader federal budget and debt problems, he questioned whether Washington would make good on a promise to pay billions of dollars for the expansion.

“We’re talking about a federal government that is not able to pay its bills,’’ Weatherford said during an appearance on the show, “Florida Face to Face.”

Some Senate Republicans indicated they might be more willing to go along with Scott, who said he would support expanding Medicaid eligibility for three years and then revisiting the issue. The federal government is slated to pay all of the expansion costs for the first three years, before the state has to pick up a portion of the tab.

“I support the governor, and I think the Senate has an open mind on it,’’ said Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater. He later added, “I think we give it a shot and see how it works.”

Senate Health Policy Chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, pointed to the possibility that a Medicaid expansion could help “safety net” hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income and uninsured people. More Medicaid coverage would produce additional revenues for hospitals, helping offset other types of funding cuts.

But Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, posted a Twitter message that expressed opposition to Scott’s stance.

“Disappointed to read (Scott’s) comments on Medicaid expansion,’’ Brandes wrote. “A blank federal check isn’t the answer, we need real reform.”

Scott, who anchored his political career on opposing President Obama’s efforts to revamp the health-care system, drew national headlines for his announcement that he would support going ahead with the Medicaid expansion. Hundreds of thousands of Floridians would become newly eligible for the government-run health program, with the federal government paying 100 percent of the costs from 2014 through 2016 and later paying 90 percent.

House and Senate select committees have been studying the Affordable Care Act for weeks and are expected to make recommendations in early March about issues such as the Medicaid expansion. Those recommendations will be initial signs of how Republicans in both chambers view the expansion.

The governor’s stance has drawn criticism from many conservatives, who accuse him of flip-flopping on his opposition to the federal law dubbed Obamacare. But Republican lawmakers are also in a politically tricky position, as going along with the expansion could outrage many of their base voters.

Sen. John Thrasher, a St. Augustine Republican who is a former chairman of the state Republican Party, said he thinks Scott is trying to lead on a “tough, difficult issue.”

“There are a number of Republican governors around the country —Gov. (John) Kasich, for one, in Ohio and the governor of Arizona — who have also agreed to do this, so it’s about leadership and that is what the governor is showing on this,’’ Thrasher said. “That doesn’t mean that the Legislature has to agree with everything he says, but I’m proud of his leadership.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said during a conference call Thursday that she has been encouraged to see states move toward expanding Medicaid, adding that they are “deciding this deal is simply too good to pass up.”

But state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam ripped the idea of expanding Medicaid, calling it “not the right direction for the state of Florida.” He also directly took aim at Scott’s position that the state could re-evaluate whether to continue the expansion after three years, an idea known as a “sunset” of the expansion.

“In three years, you don’t get a do-over just because it sunsets, which is a classic Tallahassee or a Washington bait and switch,’’ Putnam told members of the Florida Retail Federation. “You don’t get a do-over once you’ve enrolled 1.3 million new people. You don’t get to say, ’Sorry it’s sunsetted, we’re booting you off the rolls.’ You get one chance to make this decision.”

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