SUMMERS COUNTY W.Va (Hinton News) – The FFA, Future Farmers of America, was developed in 1928 by a group of young farmers. Their goal with the group was to instill within the future and upcoming generations the knowledge of feeding, or rather supporting, a quickly expanding population. This worked out well time-wise, since within the next year, the Great Depression would hit.
They showed there are more aspects to farming than simply planting and bringing in your crops. It is a segment that has to be backed by science at its roots, treated as a business in order to be successful. Additionally, it must be treated as a form of art.
The National FFA Organization (originally known as Future Farmers of America) has roots dating as far back as the Smith-Hugh Act of 1917, which provided for federal funding in the public school system to support agricultural education. The FFA still exists to this day and has over a million students from all 50 states participating. It started as a male-only organization, but later in 1969 became diverse, allowing girls alongside the boy students. Its name was officially changed to FFA in 1988.
My father, David Jones, was an FFA member while at Talcott High School, and this is his jacket from the organization. I recently found it in my storage of local artifacts. My father is on the far right in the back row. On a side note, I tried the jacket when I found it because I like vintage clothing, and it says “Talcott” on it. There is one or two reasons why it didn’t fit. Either I have put on a lot of Christmas weight, or my father was a little man when he was young. Yeah, I like the second one. Ha Ha.
