History of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. Daniel Ray Robertson Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1982 History of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. Daniel Ray Robertson Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Robertson, Daniel Ray, "History of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation." (1982). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3784. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3784 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. 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Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8312067 Robertson, Daniel Ray HISTORY OF THE LOUISIANA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION The Louisiana Stale University and Agricultural and Mechanical CoLEd.D. 1982 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M I 48106 Copyright 1983 by Robertson, Daniel Ray All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V 1. Glossy photographs or pages. 2. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. HISTORY OF THE LOUISIANA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Education Doctor in The Department of Extension Education by Daniel Ray Robertson B.S., McNeese State University, 1971 M.S., Louisiana State University, 1973 December 1982 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE From the very beginning of the United States of America, agriculture and the farmer have been the backbone of this great industrialized country. The unequaled strides made by American agriculture freed man power and other natural resources to pursue industrialization and to create the greatest country in the history of the world. Every life in the U.S. and most of the world is affected by the farmer either physic ally and or politically, although in America today farmers comprise less than 4% of the total population. While the Cooperative Extension Service has worked with farmers to create the finest food and fiber producing system known today, Farm Bureau since the early 1920's has had a pronounced effect on United States agricultural policy. No other single voluntary farm organization has influenced farm legislation as has Farm Bureau. Although Farm Bureau provides insurance, tires, batteries, marketing services, etc., to its' members, the primary function of the Bureau is to influence legislation that effects farm families. The membership of Farm Bureau provide a grass roots united voice on political matters. The National headquarters for Farm Bureau is located in Chicago, Illinois with a branch office in Washington, D. C. It has state chapters in every state of the Union and most counties have a county farm bureau within each state chapter. The organization is similar to the Extension system of agents in each parish or county. The purpose of both is to ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. educate as many people as possible. In Louisiana it is hard to talk about Farm Bureau without talking about the Louisiana State University Cooperative Extension Service. In the 1930's the Extension Service appointed a specialist to actually re organize and develop Louisiana Farm Bureau. From this early beginning, Louisiana Farm Bureau has grown to a farm organization with over 64,000 member families. Over the years, the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation has greatly affected Louisiana agriculture policy and political events in the Louisiana political arena. However, no one at any time, has written the history of Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. No other agriculture organizations have influenced the lives of Louisiana farmers as have the L.F.B.F. and the L.S.U. Extension Service. It would be of interest and great value to the culture, history, education and agriculture interest in Louisiana to have on record the origin of Farm Bureau and its effects on people and policies for the last sixty years. A printed history of the Louisiana Farm Bureau is non-existent. This History required personal interviews with early leaders and organizers. Valuable information was obtained on tape from Mr. Carl E. Kemmerly, Jr. who worked for L.S.U. Extension and was primarily re sponsible for the early organization of Farm Bureau. Interviews from all remaining past and present presidents and Farm Bureau leaders were taped and used. A great deal of information was obtained through the use of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation Newspaper and other second ary sources. History of Louisiana Farm Bureau is a descriptive history of Farm Bureau in Louisiana. Hopefully I was able to use the knowledge gained iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from Extension Education, Sociology, Ag-Economics, Economics, and personal experience having worked for Louisiana Farm Bureau and L.S.U. Cooperative Extension Service to show how Farm Bureau's history has in fluenced the lives and policies of Louisiana farmers for the past sixty years. Also, Mr. H. C. Sanders was of great assistance in obtaining in formation. I hope it is an interesting and useful document and repre sentative of the organization it represents and also representative of the work that went into the preparation. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author expresses his sincere appreciation to Dr. Bruce Flint, the author’s major professor, for his help and guidance during the graduate program and preparation of this dissertation. Appreciation