A huge brouhaha has been brewing in Florida agriculture circles in recent days about comments University of Florida President Bernie Machen was “reported” to have made about the lack of importance of agriculture to the state. We have not reported on this story until now because of lack of direct verifiability of Machen’s comments. As a 1978 graduate of UF’s College of Journalism the need for such corroboration, particularly on a story of this nature was drilled into me early on, and the way the comments were reported were not enough for us to run with for a story from that angle at the time. As the story was left to the rumor mill and passed from one to another it has grown to create downright worry and angst among many people in statewide agriculture, extension and ag research circles.
This morning it is being reported from several good sources that Machen vehemently denies having said anything that was reported in the original story, and as of late yesterday has directly responded in writing (pdf file) to the local agriculture newspaper in south Florida where the story apparently was born. According to this copy of Dr Machen’s response the newspaper refused to run a retraction of the original story which simply stated Machen had “reportedly made a statement…”
We have a call into Dr. Machen’s office in hopes he will accept our invitation to speak directly to the state’s agriculture community through this network. As our listeners have known for years we prefer to allow newsmakers to speak for themselves, and radio airwaves and more recently the technology of this website allow them to easily do so. Stay tuned, we’ll have more on this story as the day progresses now that we have some verifiable sources to go on. Thanks for your patience, and thanks also to the many of you who have contacted us directly about this concern in recent days. Stay Tuned!
Gary Cooper, President, Southeast AgNet
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