EXCLUSIVE: Agriculture Commissioner Candidate Wilton Simpson Wants to Ban Foreign Enemies from Buying Florida Farmland

JACKSONVILLE (FLV) – Republican candidate for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson made a stop in Jacksonville less than a week before the Nov. 8 election to talk about his plans if elected.

“I wanted to make sure I come out and meet a lot of the folks that maybe I hadn’t seen through my work career or even political career over this time,” Simpson said.

Florida’s Voice spoke with Simpson when he stopped for a tour at K9’s for Warriors in Ponte Vedra, an organization that serves Veterans. The candidate said he would be an advocate for those in Duval County.

“With the deep water ports that are in Jacksonville and around Jacksonville, with the vast farmland that is in Jacksonville, they’ll have an advocate in the Department of Agriculture that understands agriculture, that understands farming and will advocate on their behalf as it relates to their operation,” Simpson said. 

One of the main themes in Simpson’s campaign is bringing back “common sense” to the Department of Agriculture after Democrat Commissioner Nikki Fried took office in 2019. Fried lost the gubernatorial primary to Charlie Crist in August.

Simpson said he wants to “streamline” the Department of Agriculture to address problems before they escalate. 

“When you think about the supply chain in agriculture, it’s something that we are very interested in making sure that we continue to stay ahead of the curve so that we don’t have food shortages,” Simpson said. “We need to make sure that a trade agreement or federal assistance after an emergency like Hurricane Ian is tailor-made for the state of Florida and fits our needs. It’s not a one size fits all and Florida needs to have an agriculture commissioner that understands that.”

The candidate wants to work with lawmakers “right out of the gate” to help Floridians. One of the plans include modernizing the forestry division by stationing drones around the state to address forest fires.

“If you have a forest fire that drone can go up immediately, identify the source of the fire, potentially where it started, what direction it is moving in, and it will save our firefighters on the ground a lot of time, a lot of energy and ultimately a lot of lives,” Simpson said.

Simpson also said he will work hard on “outlawing the idea that our foreign enemies can buy real estate in the state of Florida, farmlands and ag lands –  we’re also putting a bill together that’s gonna address this issue with credit card companies trying to identify people within the state that buy guns or ammunition and things of that nature.”

When it comes to the process of handling firearms permits, Simpson said he wants to make changes “fairly quickly.”

“I believe that we will hire a team that will come in and make sure that we are processing permits as quickly as humanly possible, that’s very consistent, that we’re doing the process thoroughly but very timely,” Simpson said. “And then if there is a constitutional carry passed, which I believe there’s a good chance it will be, then we will still have the concealed carry because a lot of Floridians will still want to conceal carry even though they will have their constitutional rights to constitutional carry. So there will still be a process there.”

Simpson said he has a lot of support in Jacksonville and has ties to people such as Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office candidate TK Waters.

“We’re looking forward to serving with TK as a sheriff here,” Simpson said. “He’s a good friend and we are supporting his efforts. He’s a good man. He’s gonna do a great job. We know that Duval will be well served with his leadership at the sheriff’s office – I hope to bring some common sense back to the department of agriculture after four years of lacking.”