The Farm Bureau movement started in 1911 when John Barron, a farmer who graduated from
Cornell University, worked as an
extension agent in
Broome County, New York. He served as a Farm Bureau representative for farmers with the
Chamber of Commerce of
Binghamton, New York. The effort was financed by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
Lackawanna Railroad. The Broome County Farm Bureau was soon separated from the Chamber of Commerce. Other farm bureaus later formed in counties across the U.S., as listed with dates at "
List of Farm Bureaus". In 1914, with the passage of the
Smith–Lever Act of 1914, Congress agreed to share with the states the cost of programs for providing "county agents", who supplied information to farmers on improved methods of
animal husbandry and crop production developed by agricultural colleges and experiment stations, which has evolved into the modern-day
Cooperative Extension Service. In 1915, farmers meeting in
Saline County, Missouri, formed the first statewide Farm Bureau.
1919–1929 In 1919, a group of farmers from 30 states gathered in Chicago. They founded the American Farm Bureau Federation with the goal of "speaking for themselves through their own national organization". But they also sought to forestall populist organization of small farmers. "The inception of this national farm bureau association is taking place at a most opportune time," Harvey J. Sconce, president of the Illinois Agricultural Association, said at the meeting. "The United States is at present experiencing the greatest period of industrial unrest in its entire history. It is now just one year since the signing of the
armistice. During this interval more than 3,000 strikes have been inaugurated in this country. Is it any wonder that production has dwindled and cost of living has so greatly increased? It is our duty in creating this organization to avoid any policy that will align organized farmers with the radicals of other organizations. The policy should be thoroughly American in every respect – a constructive organization instead of a destructive organization." Wrote Brian Campbell, now a professor at
Berry College: "Farm Bureau began as a counter-move to various farm organizations that represented small farmers." where it pushed for changes in
New Deal programs to favor large farms with many employees over family farms. Along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bureau and other "advocates of a mechanized, highly commercialized agriculture helped initiate an abrupt two-decade shift to machines and wage labor." In a study of the organization's New Deal period during the 1930s, Christian McFayden Cambell concluded that it was "...largely controlled from the top. Its leadership is self-perpetuating, and its policy, although nursed through an elaborate procedural labyrinth, is rarely permitted to wander very far afield. 'The Farm Bureau's cherished belief that its policy was made at the grass roots and adopted by democratic process turned out to be partly illusion,' concluded Christiana McFayden Cambell in her study of the organization's New Deal period. There appears to be no reason to change that assessment today," Samuel R. Berger wrote in
Dollar Harvest (2nd ed., 1978)
. Since 2000 By the 21st century, the AFBF, through its state and local affiliates, was entwined financially with large agribusiness corporations. "In recent years, its insurance affiliates have bought stock in companies like
Cargill,
ConAgra,
Dow Chemical,
DuPont,
Tyson and
Archer Daniels Midland, all major food industry players. The Southern Farm Bureau Annuity Insurance Co. [co-owned by 10 state Farm Bureaus] once owned more than 18,000 shares of
Premium Standard stock,"
The Nation wrote in 2012. earning a salary of $832,216 in his final year. Duval took over in January 2017, earning a salary of $648,111 in his first year. AFBF, which called the demands a "predatory shakedown", was one of several groups that provided legal assistance to the farmers and haulers. Under these, AFBF also agrees not to lobby on
right to repair legislation, and to “encourage state-level Farm Bureaus to recognize the commitments made in the MOU and refrain from promoting “right to repair” legislation at the state or federal level”. == Lobbying ==