Fresh From Florida feast enjoyed by Trenton FFA

By Carrie A. Mizell

Selling the most FFA license plates in the state garnered the Trenton FFA chapters a gourmet feast and a visit from Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.
Designed to promote sales of the FFA license plate, the Florida FFA “Plate to Plate” contest was sponsored by the Commissioner of Agriculture. The FFA license plate was introduced two years ago and since then the Florida FFA chapters have sold over 1200 license plates over the last two years. Funding from the sale of these plates goes directly towards agriculture education across the state.This year the Trenton FFA chapters sold over 100 license plates.
Members of the Trenton Jr. and Sr. FFA Chapters waited anxiously Tuesday morning for their reward to arrive in the form of Commissioner Bronson, who flew into the Cross City Airport shortly before 9 a.m.
Once he arrived at Trenton MiddleHigh School, Commissioner Bronson talked to students about what it means to be the state’s commissioner of agriculture, an elected position he has held for the last seven years.
“It’s been a long time since I taught vocational agricutlure,” Bronson said. “I taught in 1973 at GHS.”
Bronson said he remembers taking judging teams to the State Fair, which he is now the head of.
“The Florida Department of Agriculture is the largest department of agriculture in the country with 3,700 employees,” Bronson said. “We handle everything from forestry and pesticide to food safety.”
Bronson told students that farming in Florida is not cheap because of water quality issues and the cost of chemicals. He said, however, that the most detremental thing facing family farms is inheritance tax.
“We got a break during the Bush years, but now they’re talking about re-instituting inheritance tax back to 55 percent,” Bronson said. “This is the single most harmful thing facing family farms. It’s not really fair that you have to pay inheritance taxes, considering your family paid the taxes.”
Bronson also told students about law enforcement stations within the Department of Agriculture. He said that at least four new pests and diseases are discovered at intradiction stations along the state’s borders each month.
After talking about the Division of Forestry, environmental services, polo horses and H1N1, Bronson asked students if they had any questions for him.
Questions raised varied from the job responsibilities of the head verterinarian in the state to animal identification tags on all animals, which Bronson is in favor of.
When asked if he would be running for governor next year, Bronson said he plans to make a formal announcement on Thursday.
“There were two things I said I would never do, be a politician or a salesperson, but I ended up doing both of these things,” Bronson said. “I will tell you this, my wife’s arguements for why I shouldn’t run are starting to sound a lot better than my reasons to.”
Next year will mark Bronson’s last year as commissioner of agriculture due to term limits. He said that wheter he is commissioner of agriculture or governor he will continue to promote Fresh From Florida goods.
“It’s a symbol known around the world,” Bronson said. “Florida has the least amount of food borne diseases of any state in the country.”
Since the tourism industry in the state has gone down due to a poor economy, Bronson said that agriculture is once again the number one industry in the state. He credits this to the fact that farmers are used to going through both good times and bad times.
After spending much of the morning talking with students, Bronson traveled to the Trenton Woman’s Club where he enjoyed a gourmet lunch with members of the Trenton FFA Chapter. Prepared by fellow Fresh From Florida advocate, Chef Justin Timineri of the Florida Department of Agriculture. Chef Timineri prepared a meal students will not soon forget. Made from Fresh From Florida ingredients, the meal consisted of Florida snap beans tossed in Greek yoguart, feta cheese and lemon, new potatoes from Hastings in a dressing of Florida wildflowers, honey and bacon, sweet corn spoonbread with cheese, Florida herb grilled chicken with tomato jam made from Immokalee tomatoes, three melon salad with lemon grass and simple syrup and blueberry citrus cakes with cream cheese frosting.
The concensus among students was that the chicken and blueberry citrus cakes were the most delicious, though Chef Timineri said he favors the snap beans.
According to Josh Leverette, of the Trenton Sr. FFA Chapter, students sold license plates beginning in December through April in an effort to win the annual contest.
Bronson encouraged Trenton FFA chapters to strive for excellence again next year.
“You can win this more than one time, you just have to work twice as hard next time,” Bronson said.