by ROB GILBERT
@IFAS_VP
To transform Florida agriculture through artificial intelligence, we need a place to develop the technologies. We’re about to get it, thanks to Florida Rep. Lawrence McClure.
Lawrence has been a champion for what we’re now calling the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture since the inception of the idea. In fact, he was at the meeting where it was first publicly discussed and joined his fellow agriculture leaders in pushing for UF/IFAS to pursue this vision.
No one has done more since to make it a reality. For two consecutive years, Lawrence has secured legislative passage of funding for the center’s construction. That includes $19 million he secured in the 2024 session.
Ordinarily, that would be cause to honor Lawrence as our legislator of the year. The problem is, we’ve already done that twice, in 2019 and 2023. No other legislator has been honored more than once.
We’re going to retire Lawrence’s number so that there’s opportunity for us to thank other friends in Tallahassee. But Lawrence has done so much again in 2024 that he really needs to be publicly commended for all he does for agriculture.
That’s why I went to Plant City in May for the Florida Strawberry Growers Association AgriTech Trade Show and Seminars. I knew Lawrence would be there. We were given a moment on stage to recognize him.
I brought a plaque with me that simply recognizes him for his support for UF/IFAS and for Florida agriculture.
Lawrence also understands the land-grant model that supports agriculture through a partnership of academia, industry, and government. Industry identifies challenges, the government invests in solutions, and the university supplies the innovation.
It requires those in government to appreciate the value of agriculture and science and invest in them. Lawrence supports a vision to make Florida the Silicon Valley of agriculture. He inspires us to think big about how to apply artificial intelligence to agriculture, and he asks us what we need to make it happen.
In just two years, Lawrence successfully secured the funding from the Legislature that will allow us to build the center. What seemed like an audacious goal at that meeting a few years ago is now in design.
Because of what Lawrence has done in the past 18 months, the tools, knowledge and innovation that will emerge from the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture will benefit producers in Hillsborough, Polk and the whole state for decades to come.
Rob Gilbert is the University of Florida’s interim senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
