Accountability and Advocacy: How the Florida Cattle Enhancement Board Earns Legislative Trust
Accountability and transparency are essential when it comes to agricultural policy and funding, and the Florida Cattle Enhancement Board continues to earn strong support from state legislators for exactly those reasons. To better understand why the Board’s work resonates so well in Tallahassee, we sat down with Sam Mard, Director of Government Affairs at the Florida Cattlemen’s Association (FCA), to discuss oversight, advocacy, and the power of personal connections.
According to Mard, the Board’s commitment to fiscal responsibility sets it apart. “Overall it’s been very positive. One of the things that the Enhancement Board does that we’re audited every year, we have to pay for the audit, so they know the money is spent well.
We publish the results. It’s not like the state agency trying to hide money. I mean we don’t do that.
Everything we do is very transparent and it’s debated and it’s voted on and the legislators that we work with, we’re accountable. That goes a long way with them.”
That transparency builds trust, but FCA’s influence doesn’t stop with financial accountability. A major component of its success comes from what Mard calls FCA’s “boots on the hill” — cattlemen and women showing up in person to speak directly with policymakers.
Mard explained the logistical challenge of coordinating those visits across a diverse state. “What we would love to do is arrange it to where each one can go to their own senator or legislator and talk to them, but we never know who’s going to be here. You know, schedules change, that kind of thing, and there are some districts that really don’t have the amount of ag that others do.”
Urban districts, he noted, are especially important. “They may not have any ag in their district, but they do when they sit down to eat… and for our guys and gals to go into a urban legislator’s office and say, here’s what we do, here’s what we’re concerned with, it means the world.”
Those personal conversations make a lasting impression. “We do visit all 160… we give them a packet of our legislative issues… What I ask is that you find something in there that you’re passionate about and talk to them about it. Your passion will show… so it makes a tremendous impact to have a local constituent, a real person, as we call them, come up and speak directly to a policymaker.”
Through transparency, accountability, and grassroots advocacy, the Florida Cattle Enhancement Board and FCA continue to strengthen agriculture’s voice in Florida government.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.