'Food Is the Money of a Hungry World' talk   Save
Friends of the Land Collection
Description: Off-print of an essay by Ollie Fink as featured in the June 1948 edition of 'The Ohio Banker' magazine. The essay advertises the impact of conservation principles on the nutrition, health, economy and well-being of city-dwellers. It advertises "No farm surplus -- No City," and, in keeping with the Friends of the Land's wider mission, makes the claim that "conservation is... of greater importance to those who live in cities than it is to those who live on farms." The pitch, here, is specifically angled to bankers. The essay reprint is evidence of FOTL's wide purchase in a variety of professional circles during the 1940s and 1950s -- and of the endemic spread of concern about agricultural conservation and its connection to national well-being, health and prosperity during the dawn of the Cold War. Fink's speech has been prepared as an advertising off-print, soliciting new membership in Friends of the Land. The Friends of the Land Collection (1930-1960) contains the papers of the Friends of the Land (1940-1959), a prominent national soil conservation education organization headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. FOTL produced an international literary arts quarterly, THE LAND (edited by New Deal agriculture writer Russell Lord) in addition to several members' only publications (LAND LETTER) and informational pamphlets. They also hosted annual conferences; ran conservation tours, teacher training labs, and workshops; and operated as a national clearinghouse for conservation information. Ohio farmer and novelist Louis Bromfield was active in the organization. Much of the collection reflects the career and interests of FOTL Executive Secretary Ollie Fink, who was a prominent conservation education pioneer in Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS364_B02F08_01_01
Subjects: Conservation education; Social movements; Agricultural conservation; Soil science; Nutrition; Ecology
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)