Charles H. Bronson, a fifth-generation Floridian, serves as Florida's 10th Agriculture Commissioner. Managing the largest state Department of Agriculture in the country with more than 3,700 employees, Bronson’s priorities include overseeing the state's vast agriculture industry and helping promote its products, safeguarding the state's food supply, protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive trade practices, and managing about one million acres of state forests.

Initially appointed to the position in May 2001 to fill the unexpired term of the outgoing Commissioner, Bronson was elected to the post in a statewide election in November 2002, and re-elected in November 2006. In addition to heading Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Bronson serves on the Florida Cabinet - a body that includes Florida's three statewide elected officials, as well as the Governor, and oversees state land-buying programs, clemency issues and directs the operations of several state agencies. Bronson is a former member of the Governor's Council on Efficient Government and is a past President of the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

Born into a ranching family in Kissimmee in 1949, Bronson comes from a family that traces its long agricultural roots to 1635 as each generation of the family has been in farming since that date. The Commissioner attended Osceola County public schools and received a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural education, as well as animal and meat sciences, from the University of Georgia in 1972. He worked in the fertilizer, chemical and sod business and ultimately managed the family's cattle business in Central Florida. A certified law enforcement officer, Bronson served as a reserve deputy in both Miami-Dade and Brevard counties. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 1994, representing a district that encompassed both Brevard and Osceola counties, and reelected in 1998. He served as chairman of both counties' legislative delegations, and chairman of the Florida Senate's Agriculture and Consumer Services Committee and its Natural Resources Committee.

He has received numerous honors and awards including an FFA Honorary National Degree for outstanding personal commitment, a Nature Conservancy Legislative Leadership Appreciation Award, a Florida Farm Bureau Legislative Award, and both Florida Sheriff's and Florida Police Chief Association's Legislative Awards.

Bronson resides in Tallahassee with his wife, Regina.

John Ikerd was raised on a small dairy farm, worked in private industry for a time, earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees in agricultural economics, and served on the faculties of four major state universities during his 30-year academic career - North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, and University of Missouri. 

Dr. Ikerd spent the first half of his academic career as a conventional neoclassical economist, encouraging his students and the farmer with whom he worked to focus on the economic bottom-line and trust the markets to transform their pursuit of individual self-interests into the greater good of society. In searching for the roots of the farm financial crisis of the 1980s, however, he came to the conclusion that not only was American agriculture not sustainable but neither was the American economy or society. He came to understand that Americans are rapidly depleting the productivity of the natural and human resources from which all economic value and material well-being are derived. He eventually concluded that change is not an option; it is a necessity.  

Dr. Ikerd spent the second half of his academic career working with the sustainable agriculture movement. He wrote extensively on the subject of sustainability, including chapters in books and professional journals, before turning to writing for farmers, food consumers, and members of the general public. Since retiring from the University of Missouri in 2000, Dr. Ikerd has traveled extensively across the North American continent and beyond, speaking and writing about the critical questions of sustainability with an emphasis on agriculture and economics. 

More than one-hundred of his papers and additional biographical information are available on his university website at http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj. His books are available directly from the publishers by clicking the websites below, or through Amazon.com and other online booksellers.