Some UF agricultural students have joined agriculture industry leaders in opposition to potential budget cuts to the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
A riff between those in the industry and UF President Bernie Mahcen began after comments about a "dying" Florida agriculture industry were attributed to Machen.
Farm & Ranch News, an online Tampa-based farming newspaper, quoted Machen as saying agriculture is "not worthy of the investments being made by the Legislature" in a Feb. 5 article - statements Machen has publicly denied.
Still, some students entering the industry said the report was troubling, especially since UF will soon make expansive on-campus funding cuts to deal with a budget crisis.
Derek Orsenigo, agricultural operations management junior, said he hopes UF won't cut from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, which is overseen by IFAS.
Orsenigo said CALS may be one of UF's smaller colleges, but cutting funds would be detrimental to research and extension work across the state - aspects of IFAS that make UF a leading land-grant institution, he said.
"It's pretty ridiculous to cut where you started from," he said. "There's gotta be other ways to do it."
UF has to trim $50 million from its budget by July 1. Specific plans for cuts will be released in April. Records from IFAS show that the institute's general revenue has enjoyed increases since Machen's arrival to UF with a nearly 8 percent increase in funding since 2003.
IFAS funding during the four years before Machen arrived had about a 1 percent growth.
But these funding increases come from the state Legislature, not from UF, said Jack Battenfield, IFAS spokesman.
Machen wrote in a Feb. 13 e-mail that the cuts have not yet been determined.
"Hopefully, however, decisions about cuts will be made based on what is best for the University - not based upon "attitude," Machen wrote.
Pat Cockrell, executive director of the Florida Farm Bureau, said he is more concerned with the prospect of targeted budget cuts than figuring out if the rumors are true.
