Florida Farm Bureau presents its highest honor to Carl B. Loop Jr.

(Gainesville, Fla.) – Florida Farm Bureau Federation honored Carl B. Loop Jr., the Jacksonville nurseryman who served as the organization’s president for 23 years, at its 66th annual meeting last week at the Hilton Daytona Beach Ocean Walk Village. Loop was recognized with the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award, the Federation’s highest honor, for a lifetime of service to agriculture.

“I know of no individual more deserving of this honor,” said Federation President John L. Hoblick. “I was deeply honored to present the Distinguished Service Award to Mr. Loop in recognition of his exemplary service to Farm Bureau and to agriculture.”

Loop founded Loop’s Nursery and Greenhouses with a borrowed truck and a $1,500 loan after he graduated from the University of Florida in 1949. The nursery, now one of the largest wholesale nurseries in the Southeast, spans nearly 50 acres in two locations in Duval and St. Johns counties and supplies florists and garden centers around the Southeast.

He served as president of the Duval County Farm Bureau in the 1970s, was elected to Florida Farm Bureau’s state board in 1972, was elected vice president in 1982 and president in 1983. He retired as president in 2006. American Farm Bureau elected him to its board of directors in 1986; he served as vice president from 1995 until 2001. He also served as president of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company and Florida Farm Bureau Insurance Group.

Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each appointed him to advisory panels with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. He was also a member of the joint USDA/USTR Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee.

Loop received the University of Florida’s Award of Distinction in 1999, Progressive Farmer’s Florida Farmer of the Year in 1999, and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ External Distinguished Service Award in 1990. He was inducted into the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2002.

The Florida Farm Bureau Federation is the state’s largest general-interest agricultural association with about 140,000 member-families statewide. Headquartered in Gainesville, the Federation is an independent, non-profit agricultural organization. More information about Florida Farm Bureau is available on the organization’s Web site, FloridaFarmBureau.org