We like to pack as much into a trip as we can, so this morning we left Tampa early to get to Orlando for the Florida Farm to Fuel Summit where Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer was speaking.

I got a chance to sit down with him and chat for a few minutes, and since this was mainly for programs I produce for Southeast AgNet, the questions all centered around Florida agriculture. We only had a few minutes and he had already hit on every other topic from energy to the Farm Bill to trade in his remarks. Schafer made a couple of other Florida stops after Orlando – in Gainesville and Jacksonville – so I asked him about that.

It was nice to finally get to meet the Secretary since Chuck has already had that pleasure a few times. Being at the summit also allowed us to gather content for Domestic Fuel and cover the meeting for another client, the Renewable Fuels Association. RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen addressed the group and I will be using some of the audio we gathered here to do a podcast for them. So, we killed quite a few birds with this one trip!

Listen to my interview with Secretary Schafer here: f2f-08-schafer-interview.mp3