Letter to editor teaser graphic

With no confetti or fanfare, on Jan. 1, 2024, the FFA Creed expanded beyond this cattleman’s heart and entered the public domain.

For 95 years, high school agriculture students across America have been learning, memorizing and incorporating the values first expressed by Erwin Milton Tiffany at the third national FFA convention. Many things from 1928 have gone the way of the whalebone corset, but the principles discussed in this FFA foundational document are as timeless as our purple mountains’ majesty and amber waves of grain.

What is it about these 258 words that so thoroughly captures the hopeful ambition of present and past generations of agriculturists?

Not words, but deeds. Better days through better ways. Pleasant as well as challenging. Durability of foul-weather associations. Leadership/respect, efficient work/clear thought. Less begging/more bargaining, honest wealth for the life abundant, less need for charity/more of it when needed, playing square. Keep the faith/influence the community.

These words teach and inspire a human’s nearly infinite ability to overcome difficulty and ameliorate the future. There is no submission, no tail tucked between legs, only bold, noble confidence.

It has been said that a person’s character is an average of their five closest associates. What person would not be improved by rubbing shoulders with a couple young farmers, full of the persistent glow of E.M. Tiffany’s brilliant and enduring creed.

Brian Gale

Ruby Valley, Nevada