Glen Zorn is a candidate for the statewide office of Commissioner, Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries. As a farmer, businessman, former mayor and public official, Glen is uniquely qualified for this important constitutional position.

He is currently Assistant Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries. In addition to serving in the senior staff position under the current Commissioner Ron Sparks, he is also Director of the following Departments:

• The Center for Alternative Fuels
• Light Weights & Measures
• Heavy Weights & Measures
• Plant Protection       

Glen joined Ron Sparks’s campaign for Commissioner in 2001 and served as his Campaign Committee Chairman. When Ron was elected Commissioner, he asked Glen to join his staff in Montgomery, and Glen stayed on through his first and second term.

Prior to joining Commissioner Sparks in Montgomery, Glen was in his second term as Mayor of Florala. Under his leadership Glen expanded the city’s industrial park and brought in new businesses and jobs. Taking note of the long term needs of his hometown community, Glen led a successful effort to build a nursing home in Florala. Completed in 2003, Florala’s is one of the most recently built skilled nursing home facilities in the state.

Glen sought the mayor’s office after spending nearly four decades in agribusiness, most all of which revolved around his Florala-based family business, Zorn Brothers, Inc. Glen says his interest in politics and public service began when he realized how much impact the federal Clean Water Acts were going to have on agriculture. Long before the droughts of recent years sparked debate at the local, state and national levels, Glen was serving as a charter member of the Choctawhatchee, Pea and Yellow Rivers Water Management Authority devising long term solutions to south Alabama’s water needs. He has been Board Chairman and is currently a Resident Director of the Board.

Zorn has a degree in Business Administration and Economics from the University of West Alabama. His alma mater took note of his business and civic leadership and selected him to join the University’s prestigious Society of the Golden Key in 2003. He is a Certified Crop Advisor, and was Chairman of the American Society of Agronomy’s Alabama Certified Crop Board in 2000. He served on the Alabama Commission on Environmental Initiatives, and in a number of other positions in agriculture, business and the environment. 

As Mayor of Florala, Glen was presented with “A FRIEND OF THE WETLANDS” award in 1999 in recognition of his efforts to protect wetlands and the environment, by the Wetland Section, Southeastern Region, United States Environmental Protection Agency. In July, 2000 Glen was selected as Outstanding Elected Official at 2nd Annual Southern Ag/Forestry Expo in Andalusia, AL In August, 2000 Glen was named Outstanding Elected Official by the Southeast Alabama Association of Conservation Soil and Water Districts in Eufaula, AL As a Board Member of the Choctawhatchee, Pea and Yellow Rivers Watershed Management Authority, Glen accepted the 2001 Partnership Award for Unpaved Road Erosion and Sediment Control Project/Gulf of Mexico Program.

Zorn and his late wife, Mary Jane, have two children and two grandchildren.