Global Panel

Don Bransford

Don Bransford is a partner in Bransford Farms, a diversified farming operation growing rice, prunes and almonds in the Sacramento Valley. Bransford was appointed to the State Board of Food and Agriculture in 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and reappointed in 2011. Bransford is also President of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District and Chair of the University of California President’s Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources and past Chair of the USA Rice Federation Rice Producers’ Group, the California Rice Commission and the Northern California Water Association. He served on the board and in other leadership positions with Farmers’ Rice Cooperative and the California Rice Industry Association. He was appointed to the Bay Delta Advisory Council of CALFED by Governor Pete Wilson in 1995 and was appointed to the State of California, Governor’s Advisory Drought Planning Panel in 2000 by Governor Gray Davis. He was named the USA Rice Federation’s Rice Farmer of the Year for 1999, awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the U.S. rice industry in 2005. In 2005 he was also awarded the California Rice Industry Award for distinguished contributions to the advancement of the California rice industry. He has also served on Board of Trustees of Colusa Unified School District since 1981. He represents UC on the Council for Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching (CARET).