Trump to address Future Farmers of America convention ahead of midterms

Fox News ^ | 10/25/18 | Stephen Sorace

[JonnyFive]

President Trump will deliver the keynote address Saturday at a convention for American farmers in Indianapolis, becoming the first president to accept the invitation in nearly three decades.

Trump is scheduled to attend the 91st annual Future Farmers of America Convention and Expo to speak about how his administration has helped spur agriculture, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Earlier this month, Trump announced his decision to permit year-round sales of E15 -- automotive fuel that's 15 percent ethanol -- a move seen as particularly helpful for the farm states.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Someone in that White House is thinking.

[shelterguy]

He really needs to stay on top of the farmers. Farmers are not the salt of the earth conservatives they once were. As generations go by they are more likely to be more and more dependent on the government tit to survive. They have been taught that the only way they can survive is to vote for democrats so the subsidies will continue.

President Trump will show them that opening new markets is a better way to go.

[Sivad]

I guess this post may be categorized as a fun fact but
technically President Trump did not address the Future
Farmers of America. Rather, he addressed the FFA. The
hell you say? After all, FFA does stand for Future
Farmers of America.....doesn’t it? Well, yes it does but
the organization quit using the full name back in the
1970s. I guess you might say that the youth organization
was an early victim of political correctness....of sorts.

Not only was I a member of the once all boy vocational
agriculture organization which was connected to public
high schools but my dad was my ag teacher/FFA adviser
(1965-69). Actually, he left ag teaching to become the
California state Assistant FFA Advisor after my
high school sophomore year. He went to work for the state
dept of education in other words. A lot of his job
consisted of working with the state FFA officers who
were elected by the membership at the annual convention
and served a one year term. The candidates were (and are)
selected thru an interview and application process
conducted by adults and serve the year after graduation
from HS. They can also run and serve their second year
after HS.

In 1969 the California Association and the National
Association voted to allow girls to become members
and my dad was among those who helped to make that
happen across the nation.

The Future Farmers of America grew in numbers throughout
the 1970s. As activities such as ornamental horticulture
and various agribusiness enterprises became popular
FFA chapters started springing up in urban areas around
the country. Eventually the urban chapters and other
less farm related entities increasingly felt that the
name Future Farmers did not reflect the diversity of
activities of the organization. Activities like
public speaking and parliamentary procedure competitions
grew. Of course many urban and suburban FFA chapters knew
they weren’t going to produce farmers so the
organization decided to dispense with the full name
and just use FFA which stands for.....? I don’t know.
The new way of describing the organization did not go
over big in places like Texas, Oklahoma, rural Cali,
and many rural areas across the US but as in anything
similar the membership is transitional...the Seniors
graduate and a new batch of freshmen with no connection
with the organization’s history enter. Hence, the only
people left to complain are salty, old Future Farmers
of America alumni like myself.

I got a kick out of watching President Trump constantly
referring to the “FUTURE FARMERS” as he addressed the
national convention on RFD-TV. Brought back memories of
my dad, the FFA, and the Future Farmers of America,