City of Satellite Beach
50th Birthday Celebration
Charles Bronson
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture
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 3,7000 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 ot the
position in May 2001 to fill the un-expired 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 member of the Governor’s Council on Efficient
Government and is a former 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 and
engineering, 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 Osceloa 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, and daughters Michelle and Melanie.