FFA originally stood for Future Farmers of America, but the association, in an effort to broaden its potential membership beyond youth working in modern American agriculture, has chosen to just be called FFA. In 1988 the name of the organization was changed from Future Farmers of America to the National FFA Organization. FFA is a form of youth organization known as a Career and Technical Student Organization based in high school classes that promotes and supports agricultural education. FFA was founded in 1928 and now claims over 460,000 members. High school students compete in various competitions in two major areas-career development events (CDE's) and supervised agricultural experiences (SAE's). CDE's consist of competitions aimed toward skills in a certain career area from agricultural marketing, meat, livestock, and dairy judging to food science and agricultural communications. SAE's consist of raising a farm-animal (pig, lamb, steer, rabbit, etc.) and showing this animal, growing a crop, being involved in agricultural sales or business, conducting research in agriscience, community leadership, or learning the mechanics of agricultural machinery.
FFA is based in chapters at the middle school and high school level. Each chapter belongs to a district association which belongs to the state association which belongs to the national association. Competition for CDE's takes place at each level. Lower levels are considered qualifying for competition at the national level. The National FFA Association holds its annual convention, where most of the national competition takes place, in Louisville, Kentucky.
The current National FFA Advisor is Dr. Larry Case and the current National FFA Executive Secretary is Coleman Harris. The current National President is Jackie Mundt from Wisconsin.
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Last updated: 10-16-2005 10:12:40
