UW CALS to house permanent display of FFA Creed
MADISON - Dean Kathryn Vandenbosch, University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, announced at the 2017 Farm and Industry Short Course graduation ceremony that a permanent display of the FFA Creed will be made on the campus.
“In recognition of the Centennial of the Smith-Hughes Vocational Act, we want to recognize E.M. Tiffany, a UW agriculture teacher educator, who wrote the creed in 1928,” Vandenbosch explained in in her address to the graduates.
Lindsey Rettenmund, a two-year certificate graduate, recited the creed to her fellow graduates and gave her personal comments on the future of agriculture. Rettenmund will return to return to her family farm near Black Earth.
A short video, narrated by Jackson Tiffany, the son of E.M. Tiffany was shown. It explained the origin of the FFA Creed and his father’s insight in crafting the words that have been memorized by thousands of FFA members across the nation and bear meaning to agriculturalists today.
In his father’s own words, Jackson Tiffany explained that, “The creed was written in the summer of 1928 while working up an exhibit for the first Convention of the FFA. I had prepared several charts and tables showing the program of vocational agriculture in Wisconsin. Somehow, I got the idea that a statement of ideals for the FFA might fit with the exhibit.”
“It was lettered on sign cloth in the university sign shop and included with other signs and charts and sent to Kansas City. It was published the February, 1929, issue of Agriculture Education Magazine. The Creed was adopted by the national organization at the third national convention in 1930.”
The Farm and Industry Short Course and the Farmer’s Institutes before that were the foundation for development of high school agriculture programs in Wisconsin, said Daid Laatsch, a former Beaver Dam High School Agriculture teacher,. "With the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, a century ago, vocational agriculture was made available to students across the nation.”
The theme, “I Believe in the Future of Agriculture,” was portrayed throughout the graduation program for 64 one-year certificate graduates and 30 two-year certificate graduates.