He grew up on a farrow-to-finish swine farm in northeast Missouri. He was a faculty member at Michigan State University from May 2006 to March 2010, at which point, he joined the KSU faculty in his current position. Tonsor leads a thoroughly integrated research and outreach program covering a spectrum of critical economic issues facing the livestock and meat industry including animal identification and traceability, animal welfare, country of origin labeling, food safety, meat demand, and risk management.