Farm Credit Newsroom

Last May, we posted the first blog on The AGgregator, and this is our 100th entry. We have featured insights, expertise and information about American agriculture. It seems fitting that we reached this milestone on the last day of the year, and even more so considering that Farm Credit is approaching 100 years of lending support to rural America. Keep reading to learn more about how you can celebrate with us and win $100. Read More

So what’s the 21st Century significance of this timeline and the brief bios of Fletcher, Herrick, Lubin, Myrick and Robinson beyond colorful historical trivia? I think there is great significance - it’s all about mission and heritage. One hundred years ago American farmers and the founding fathers were intensely frustrated about access to dependable credit in normal times, but especially the freezing up of credit that occurred during America’s periodic banking crises. Their quest for a permanent system of bringing capital from Wall Street to rural America was not some “issue du jour” that they worked on for a few months and then checked off in July 1916. Their frustration went way back into the 1800s and it took many years of sustained effort to assure final passage of the Farm Loan Act. Read More

“I am very glad to have a modest part in this piece of legislation. It is high time that something was done to provide additional financial assistance for the farmer. Our existing banking machinery, while helpful to the farmer as to all other citizens, because it has secured and assured safe banking and provided a national currency and credit, has been adapted primarily to the needs of the manufacturer and merchant. Their turnover is rapid, their assets are liquid. There has been a gap. There has been need of an agency, under understanding management, reaching out intimately and to the rural district, and operating on terms suited to the farmers’ needs. The farmer is the servant of the seasons. The gap has now been filled.” President Woodrow Wilson - at the signing ceremony for the Farm Loan Act, July 17, 1916 Read More

In 1916, farmers represented nearly a third of the nation’s population, and it took almost 40 hours to produce 100 bushels of corn. And in the same year, on July 17, the Farm Credit System was created to lend support to agriculture and rural America with viable credit options for these hardworking producers. Today, farmers comprise only 1 percent of the population, yet through advancements in technology, irrigation and productivity, they feed more than 308 million Americans – and can turn out 100 bushels of corn in less than three hours. Read More

Leonard G. Robinson was a self-made lawyer and general manager of the Jewish Agricultural Industrial Aid Society based in New York City with nation-wide operations. Of our five founding fathers, only Robinson and Herrick had actual experience in running a financial institution and making loans. While Robinson was not prominent in the commissions and garnering support for the passage of rural credit legislation, his practical knowledge would have been extremely valuable in drafting the legislation which eventually passed into law as the Farm Loan Act. Read More