Talk:American Farm Bureau Federation
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[edit] article
This article is actually bullshit. The American Farm Bureau has blessed little to do with farmers and a lot more to do with selling insurance. It was formed originally with the express intent of running the small farmer out of business. Elodoth 17:10, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
Inaccuracy #1: The American Farm Bureau has blessed little to do with farmers and a lot more to do with selling insurance.
Fact: There are more than 30 farmers who have been elected and serve on the American Farm Bureau Federation board of directors. In January 2007, several hundred farmer and rancher delegates met and agreed to focus on eight policy areas for the year, all of them directly related to farming: animal agriculture, energy and transportation, environment and land use, farm policy, immigration and farm labor, international trade, rural development, and taxes.(http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=newsroom.newsfocus&year=2007&file=nr0109.html
Fact: The American Farm Bureau does not actually sell insurance policies. There are many state Farm Bureaus insurance companies, with customers who are farmers, as well as urban and suburban residents. Insurance is one of many member service benefits state Farm Bureaus offer.(http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=about.home)
Inaccuracy #2: It was formed originally with the express intent of running the small farmer out of business.
Fact: James Howard, the first president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, outlined three remedies for the nation’s farm problems in 1920: longer term credit to carry crops through orderly marketing, tariffs to protect against competing imported farm crops and the general cooperative marketing plan outlined by Farm Bureau. (http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=about.history) Does that sound like a plan for “running the small farmer out of business?”
Fact: It’s important to know that Farm Bureau grew out of the Extension movement. (http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=about.history) The earliest organizations of farmers began to develop in the U.S. in the late 1800s. Those groups organized under a variety of names and philosophies, including The Grange, The Farmer's Alliance, The Agricultural Wheel, The Ancient Order of Gleaners and the Equity.
The origin of the Farm Bureau followed a different path and didn’t occur until shortly after the turn of the century. Farm Bureau grew out of the Extension education movement occurring at land grant colleges across the nation.
The land grant colleges were established under the Morrill Act of 1862. The Hatch Act of 1887 established agricultural experiment stations. Each had provisions for “farmer's institutes” and other forms of off campus education for farmers.
The Extension concept, however, did not take root until the early 1900s, when the agricultural colleges developed Extension departments and staff. The devastating boll weevil gave an unexpected boost to the concept of traveling professors and field demonstration projects.
With a financial assist from the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Seaman Knapp took to the road to “teach by doing rather than telling.” The field trials were developed to deal with the boll weevil. It had the effect for the first time of taking the classroom to the farm. Texas has the distinction of assigning the first “county agent.”
In 1911, John Barron, a farm boy who graduated from Cornell University, went to work in Broome County, New York. He was the first county agent to serve as a “farm bureau” representative. The Farm Bureau venture was financed jointly by USDA, the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce and the Lackawanna Railroad.
The new function operated as a “bureau” within the chamber of commerce, hence the name for the early organization. The Broome County Farm Bureau eventually separated from the chamber and began functioning as an independent entity in 1914.
Similar farm organized educational efforts quickly sprang up in Missouri, North Dakota, Vermont, Minnesota, Iowa, West Virginia and Illinois. The passage of the Smith Lever Act in 1914, providing added funds for education efforts, greatly boosted the effort.
The local Farm Bureaus served as the organizational network needed to further the Extension education efforts of the county agent. It was during a 1916 meeting of state county agent leaders that the designation “county farm bureau” was formally adopted.
The county Farm Bureau, or occasionally smaller units called parishes, initially served a social and educational function. But as the farmers met, they realized the broader potential of the new organization.
County Farm Bureaus throughout the nation started forming their own independent organizations similar to Broome County. The counties then quickly affiliated into statewide organizations. In March 1915, Missouri became the first to form a statewide organization. AgHistoryBuff 14:24, 19 March 2007 (UTC)AgHistoryBuff
[edit] Policy?
Just out of curiosity, is it standard Wikipedia policy to have the entirety of an article consist of text from the organization's official site? Hashmir 22:24, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Farm-bureau.png
Image:Farm-bureau.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot 05:27, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
