Our History

Birth of the Michigan State Farm Bureau 

• In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Smith-Lever Act creating the Extension service to provide a field force of local agricultural "agents" from land-grant universities through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Before a county agent could be approved, however, counties had to be organized into "farmers bureaus" that would serve as support groups to help direct local Extension projects. Michigan farmer Clark Brody led the effort to set up the first county Farm Bureau in St. Joseph County due to an outbreak of hog cholera, a virus also known as "swine fever."

• Missouri was the first state to organize a state federation of county Farm Bureaus in 1915, followed by Massachusetts and Vermont in that same year. Michigan followed suit on Feb. 4, 1919, when county Extension agents and farmers from 57 county Farm Bureaus met in the lecture room of the Horticultural Building at Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) and formed the Michigan State Farm Bureau. Berrien County farmer Roland Morrill was elected the first president.

• On March 6, 1919, the Michigan State Farm Bureau Executive Committee defined the organization's mission as follows. "Its purposes are to unite under a definite head of all other farm organizations. The Farm Bureau should not be considered just another farmers' organization added to the list but as THE ONE which may assist all others to better accomplish their purposes."

• In 1944 the board of directors dropped the word "State" from its name and became the Michigan Farm Bureau.