Future Farmers of America (FFA)

FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA (FFA) - The National FFA Organization is an American youth organization, specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education.   It was founded in 1925 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, by agriculture teachers, Henry C. Groseclose, Walter Newman, Edmund Magilland and Harry Sanders as Future Farmers of Virginia.   In 1928, 33 students from 18 states gathered in Kansas City, Mo., to form the nationwide organization known as Future Farmers of America.   In 1988 the name was changed to the National FFA Organization, now commonly referred to as FFA, to recognize that the organization is for those with diverse interests in the food, fiber and natural resource industries, encompassing science, business and technology in addition to production agriculture.   Today FFA is among the largest youth organization in the United States, with 629,366 members in 7,757 chapters throughout all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. FFA is the largest of the career and technical student organizations in U.S. schools.

The National FFA Organization is a youth leadership organization that makes a positive difference in the lives of young people by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agriculture education.

FFA functions within the three-circle model of agricultural education as a student leadership organization that complements a student's classroom/laboratory instruction and supervised agricultural experience program.   FFA members can compete in Career Development Events (CDE) that cover job skills in everything from communications to mechanics. Some events allow students to compete as individuals, while others allow them to compete in teams.  These competitions can happen at a local or district level, state level, and on the national level.

Students are supervised by agricultural education teachers in cooperation with parents, employers and other adults who assist individuals in the development and achievement of educational and career goals.  Official colors of the FFA are known as National Blue and Corn Gold.