Future Farmers of America Stamp
Future Farmers of America Stamp
On October 13, 1953, the U.S. Post Office issued a 3¢ stamp honoring the 25th anniversary of the Future Farmers of America. It was issued at the place the organization was founded – Kansas City, Missouri.
The stamp pictures a future farmer, wearing a jacket with the organization’s emblem, standing before a farm with rolling hills in the distance.
The Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act was passed in 1917 to give federal funds to states for high school classes in certain vocations – agriculture, family and consumer sciences, trades, and industries. Just a few years later, in the early 1920s, Virginia created a Future Farmers of Virginia Club for the boys in those agriculture classes. Over time, other states created their own Future Farmer organizations.
As more of these state groups were formed, they realized the next step would be to create a national organization. So in 1928, a group of these agriculture students met in Kansas City, Missouri for the third annual National Congress of Vocational Agriculture Students. During that convention, on November 20, thirty-three of the students from 18 states met at the Baltimore Hotel in Kansas City and officially formed the Future Farmers of America.
Also known as the FFA, the organization they founded provided support for agricultural education and leadership training for high school students. After granting charters in 48 states across the U.S., the National FFA Foundation was established in 1944.
Four years later, the FFA participated in an international exchange program with the Young Farmers Club of Great Britain. Today, the FFA sends more than 350 students to 25 countries annually to share knowledge and promote agricultural careers.
Click here for more on the FFA website.
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Food is the one that sustains life from birth of all living things including humans. Farmers are the one every one needs. In modern days of internet and space travel farmers are not be in the news but it don’t reduce their importance in society. Good information about FFA.
Farmers are wonderful. Dedicated hard working admirable people providing endless food. Thank each one and all those that harvest the crops. Great stamps. Thank you Mystic.
Isn’t the small farmer for which this organization formed, pretty much over as huge corporations buy up one farmer after another as in Corporate Farming? Just asking.
Farmers are probably the one most important producer of items needed to sustain life. The sad part is that independent farmers and the family farm are mostly gone now. The big conglomerates have taken over with more and more automation, GMOs, pesticides, and anything else that will increase production, and reduce their outlay, much of which is not as beneficial to sustaining human life as it once was. And to add to that, the intermediaries that bring the products to the table are injecting additional chemicals, and unhealthy products intended to improve the look of the product and the shelf life. Its a mad circle what the consumer is willing to put up with to obtain a cheaper product that may be significantly more unhealthy. FFA was one of the most important innovations in recent agricultural history, but unfortunately, many are being replaced by automation and cheap labor from foreign countries. Its a sad state of affairs and not an easy one to balance.
My maternal grandfather’s family were farmers in PA & I, a post WW2 baby, lived in suburban CA, but, spent many of my summer vacations in the farm town where my grandpa & my mother grew up. The experiences my siblings & I had there were extraordinary. My mother + her 32 cousins gave me a connection to, and appreciation of, a lifestyle/work ethic that made me appreciate the work ethic & aspirations of my parents – handed down to their, now, 3rd generation.
Great people focused on great services to American citizens. God bless American farmers … and thank YOU, Mystic !