Florida FFA state officers brief Senate agriculture committee on growth of agricultural education

Gabby Howell, Florida FFA state president, and Macy Jordan, state secretary, told the Florida Senate Committee on Agriculture about the organization’s growth, classrooms and career pathways, and a request for continued state funding for agricultural education.

The presentation said the National FFA Organization has a record 1,027,273 members nationwide and that Florida currently has more than 60,000 FFA members; Howell and Jordan credited recent state appropriations that made membership available to every student enrolled in agriculture classes at no cost to the student or school. Howell said Florida FFA is working to prepare students for careers across food, fiber and agriculture fields and to expand STEM-focused programming.

“FFA provides the next generation of leaders who will help change the world,” Howell said, describing the organization’s mix of classroom instruction, supervised agricultural experience and FFA leadership activities. Jordan, who identified herself as from Malone in Jackson County, said her family’s row-crop farm demonstrates the range of agricultural careers the program supports and said FFA helped her win a state championship in creed speaking and pursue agricultural education at the University of Florida.

Committee members thanked the students for visiting and praised the organization’s outreach and leadership development work. Howell and Jordan noted several program details: Florida students may choose from eight career pathways; the state offers 10 industry certifications (including animal science, agritechnology, forestry, and unmanned aircraft systems in agriculture); supervised agricultural experiences may be entrepreneurial, research-based or work placements; and FFA programming serves both students who plan to enter production agriculture and those aiming for careers in related fields.

Howell and Jordan asked the committee to support continued funding for the 2025–26 school year. The presenters cited appropriation request numbers filed in the Legislature: Senate appropriation request 2788 and House request 2512, both titled “Preparing Florida’s workforce through agricultural education.” They also invited committee members to the Florida FFA State Convention and Expo to see student projects and leadership events.

The committee did not take formal action on the presentation. The senators who spoke in the meeting praised the students’ public speaking and encouraged continued legislative support for agricultural education.