‘Meating up’ with the Boyds” Former U.S. Congressman Allen Boyd enjoys life after statesmanship

The only side former U.S. Congressman Allen Boyd concerns himself these days is of beef.

And when it comes to trying to fit under a big tent, the only polar opposites he has to draw to the middle are the four legs of the Boyd Farms Fresh canopy tent he puts up when heÂ’s at a farmers market, hocking hind quarters.

A lot of young people who come by to peruse a laminated sheet depicting the many fancy cuts of beef, or a giant poster Boyd will happily unroll and point out the different quarters to them, are content to just enjoy what the farm calls MEATUps, and learn what parts of the cow produce what, and buy some.

TheyÂ’re more concerned about gluten and hormones than they are about fat and cholesterol, which is more the focus of the Baby Boomers who remember, if theyÂ’re from here or have lived around here for a while, that Boyd once had the good fortune, granted repeatedly by the voters, to jiggle the levers of government power on behalf of the people of the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Washington and Holmes counties.

The outline of a pair of dogs stitched in blue into the brow of his cap, strike the younger people as cute, the historic implications of the threads lost on them.

They havenÂ’t much knowledge of this Florida congressman, who rose up from the ranks of the state legislature, who was among the most prominent Blue Dog Democrat in Congress, his party affiliation deeply rooted in the rural SouthÂ’s affection for what the New Deal meant to them, to their farms, to their families.

Boyd is no nouveau riche rancher, his family going back seven generations as Florida farmers.

Boyd’s time in politics, 22 years in the Florida Statehouse and the US. Congress, is relevant to what he’s busy doing now, back on the farm, making sure he not only holds on to it, but adapts it, profitably, to the current “farm-to-table beef business.

 Â“We wanted to focus on whatÂ’s best for our neighbors, our cattle and the environment. Our happy herd grazes in green pastures, producing a nutrient-dense beef that is better for your health and the planet.” reads the website, the wording likely the work of the companyÂ’s “Chief Mooover,” daughter Suzanne Boyd, who spent 25 years in the TV news business and now runs her own production company in Delray Beach.

“Our cattle never leave the region. After they are bred, born and raised on pastures in North Florida and South Georgia, they are grain-finished in open fields to choice grades,” it reads. “Our beef is then harvested and processed at a USDA-certified plant in Florida.”

Boyd continues to work as a lobbyist in Washington, on issues close to his background. In 2020, the firmÂ’s top four clients were the Florida Peanut Federation, Veterans Assembled Electronics, Enozo Technologies and Summit Wireless Technologies.

Still,based on looks alone, heÂ’s still got the silver white shock of hair, the sharp eyes and lean frame, and the down-to-earth courtliness of a farmer. His wife Jeannie, whose Georgia roots are deep in farming, works alongside him, and she seems just as sturdy, and as polished.

“We can tell you about the quality of the cow and calf we raise, and the nutritional value of that product and how it interplays in our day-to-day lives as a better, healthier society,” she said, on the deck Saturday at Lynn’s Quality Oysters, after finishing up an afternoon across the street after a morning spent at the Salt Air Farmers Market in Port St. Joe, and later on St. George Island.

The day had closed on a flat note. “People tell me, when they come down here, they don’t come down to buy beef,” he said.

With Obamacare a prominent factor in the election, Boyd lost decisively in 2010 to Steve Southerland who then served two terms before giving way to Democrat Gwen Graham, who lasted one and then read the writing on the wall and didnÂ’t run for reelection. Republican Neal Dunn, a former supporter of BoydÂ’s, has served in Congress since 2017.

“I took a lot of votes in the U.S. Congress. I probably could go back and find some that I regret taking,” he said. “The health care vote is not one of them. I do not regret taking that vote,

“It was the right thing to do for this country. 50 million people without health care,15-20 percent of the population, and health insurance costs rising at 7 or 8 percent above the inflation rate annually,” he said. “People standing at the side, saying ‘Don’t change my health care.’ Are you kidding me?”

Asked about his career, Boyd has some thoughts.

“I don’t look back that much; I certainly don’t look back with any regrets or I wish I was back or anything like that,” he said, “When I do look back, I look back with a smile and pleasure on what I was able to do, to assist people up and down this area of Florida with their lives.”

Along with legislating, he said he considered it a duty to “be an advocate for my constituents with governmental agencies, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security, Veterans Administration, immigration, Food and Drug Administration,all those things.

“I can look back and say ‘Hey I really enjoyed that,” he said. “When I do look back I’ve met a lot of really good people, really good people in north Florida and really good people around the country. And had a chance to interact with them and understand how certain people live differently from other people.

“What’s been fun about this, this meat business, is not a day goes by that I don’t reconnect with somebody who I worked with or had some dealings with when I was either in the state legislature or in the US Congress,” Boyd said.

He offers one recent instance.

“The most heart-rending was in Panacea, we were up there and this car drove up and drove up close to the table and the window rolled down, and the woman was sitting on the passenger side and the man was sitting on the driver’s side and I looked over and he was crying,” Boyd said.

“The woman said ‘He just recognized who you were. In 2006, when he had problems with the Veterans Administration or the Social Security administration,’ I can’t remember what it was, ‘and we could not shake it loose and we were in bad trouble and you helped shake it loose and we got what we needed,” Boyd said.

“That kind of thing,” he said. “That makes your day.”