Guest Column: A New Land-Grant President
Your land-grant university has a new land-grant president, Dr. Stuart Bell.
Bell describes the place where he grew up as one with not a lot of people but a lot of cows and a lot of oil. While his family didn’t farm, his dad worked a garden large enough that he used a small tractor. When Bell turned 18, he went off to his land-grant university, Texas A&M, and earned three engineering degrees.
By the time he was Dr. Bell, he was also Susan’s husband. She, too, is from rural Texas, and she brought another agricultural angle to their now 45-year marriage – a love of plants.
In fact, when the Bells arrived in Gainesville this summer, the president mentioned on his first visit with UF/IFAS administration in McCarty Hall that Susan wasn’t a Master Gardener but probably knew enough to qualify as one. And Mrs. Bell’s first outreach to UF/IFAS was a request to tour a greenhouse.
Bell recognized right away that being a land-grant president means a solid relationship with commodity associations like FNGLA. In September, I hosted a lunch to bring leaders that included FNGLA CEO Tal Coley and 2026-27 President Jennifer Parrish together for a three-hour discussion on agriculture and the UF partnership with the state’s major commodity associations.
Bell’s goal is to make UF even stronger than it is right now. The only way for that to happen, Bell told Tal and Jennifer and about 15 other leaders from the forestry, fruit and vegetable, citrus, 4-H, strawberry, cattle, and fertilizer sectors, is for Florida agriculture to get stronger, too.
By the end of the discussion, one of the leaders was asking Bell, “What can we do for you?”
FNGLA is already way ahead on this question. Once again, longtime FNGLA member Jim Fleming of Tropic Traditions has agreed to provide plants to beautify the stage at Bell’s Nov. 18 inauguration, and Past President Ed Bravo agreed to do the design and installation, even as he plays a major role in the Great Southern Tree Conference the same day.
I say “once again” because Jim and Ed did the same service for the last inauguration. It’s a historic moment for UF, as it has only had 14 presidents in its history. FNGLA’s participation ensures that the new chapter starts with a visual acknowledgment of our rich agricultural history.
Bell didn’t just learn in the land-grant system. He has led in it. Before becoming president of the University of Alabama, Bell served as provost at Louisiana State University. So he knows about universities and agriculture, and he wants to learn more about Florida agriculture.
Next for Bell is a series of listening sessions aimed at gathering input to inform UF’s next strategic plan. UF/IFAS is one of only three units – the others are UF Health and athletics – for which Bell established a subcommittee to inform the larger university plan.
That sounds like a land-grant president.
J. Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
