Florida's teachers are breaking my heart.

First, I hear with my own ears teachers coaching students as young as 8 years old to lobby legislators for -- let's call a spade a spade -- their own selfish interests. Now I find some 1,000 of them in the Miami-Dade school system choosing to protest passage of the performance-pay bill by calling in sick.

Florida's $100-billion-plus agriculture industry, second only to tourism, is one powerful economic engine. And, Saturday -- declared National Ag Day by Congress -- is a good day to remember that agriculture in the Sunshine State is a formidable employer and an even more impressive producer.