Tom B. Adams is a Florida farmer who also served as Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor. He is the owner of Magnolia Farms in Fellsmere and serves as vice chairman and president of FARM (Florida Agriculture Resources Mobilization) Foundation, Inc. His career in agriculture began in dairy and farm management and branched into government in 1956. As a state senator, Adams introduced and spearheaded the passage of the Agricultural Re-Organization Act, which overhauled the Florida Department of Agriculture, eliminating duplication and overlapping of agricultural services. While serving as lieutenant governor, Adams was vice chairman of the Florida Cabinet Budget Commission and played a vital part in helping to provide early funding of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Jack M. Berry began his career in citrus when he started a brokerage business for Florida agricultural producers in New York City. He then expanded and started exporting into Europe and Scandinavia. In 1950, Berry gave up this venture, moved to Florida and founded Jack M. Berry, Inc. He is considered one of the pioneers of flatwoods citrus production in South Florida and championed the expansion of citrus into that area after several devastating freezes. Berry’s success in South Florida led to more than 100,000 acres in southwestern Florida being converted to citrus production. Berry was also generous with helping Florida communities. After Hurricane Andrew, the Berry Corporation adopted a Homestead middle-class neighborhood of 200 homes, where the company trucked in supplies and water. In 1996, he received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Excellence and Leadership Award, based on his company’s initiatives in seeking a consolidated environmental permit.
William A. “Bill” Graham grew up on the edge of the Everglades and made his mark on Florida agriculture within the dairy and cattle industries. During the 1950s, he played a leadership role in organizing the Independent Diary Farmers Association and served as its first president. This effort spurred the creation of a federal milk marketing order for the rest of the state, allowing Florida dairies to compete against the Midwest dairy industry. At the same time, Graham also built a herd of cattle and focused on developing it into a registered Angus herd. Today it is recognized as one of the country’s finest Angus herds. A pioneer in new technology, Graham embraced artificial insemination, embryo transfers, and the use of ultrasonography of carcass traits. He was one of the first dairy farmers to adopt the use of milking parlors. As a result of diversification, The Graham Companies are involved in diary farming, sugar cane, Angus beef cattle, pecan groves, timber and real estate development.
Henry Frederick Swanson has been a lifelong advocate for agriculture and helped protect agriculture during Orange County’s transition from a rural county to the world tourist destination and corporate metropolis it is today. In 1948, he joined the Orange County Extension Service, where he worked for the next 30 years. Swanson was the first extension agent to sound the alarm that Florida’s agricultural communities were facing extinction from an urban influx. For the rest of his career, he worked tirelessly to ease the difficult transition in Orange County from rural to urban land uses, while preserving the county’s agricultural industries.
