Louise Stoner is a Farm Bureau member from Lewis & Clark County.  Recently, Louise had the opportunity to attend the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention in Austin. The convention offered a variety of workshops, speakers and special events for attendees. Here are Louise's thoughts from her experience at #AFBF2020.

This is our second year attending the American Farm Bureau convention, and one of the highlights of both years has been attending the Flapjack Fundraiser. This is a great fundraiser for the Farm Bureau's Foundation for Agriculture to support agriculture education and literacy across the nation.

One of the exciting gifts we received is a copy of the Foundation Book of the Year. This year’s book is titled “Full of Beans – Henry Ford Grows a Car,” written by Peggy Thomas. Peggy was interviewed during breakfast and asked what inspired her to write this book. She told the story about Henry Ford wanted to support ailing farmers after the Great Depression. Ford discovered that the soybean was the perfect answer to the farmers’ problems. Soybeans could be used to make paint, plastic, fabric and food. The more cars Henry built, the more soybeans he needed.

Peggy said she always likes to include additional information she’s discovered while writing her books. You can find recipes and other interesting facts about soybeans in the back of her book. Later that morning, Scott and I stood in line to get our books autographed by Peggy.

What's the "Book of the Year" award?

The “Book of the Year” award springs from the Farm Bureau Foundation’s effort to identify “Accurate Ag Books,” a collection of nearly 500 books for children, teenagers and adults that accurately cover agricultural topics. Book of the Year selections are educational, help to create positive public perceptions about agriculture, inspire readers to learn more and touch their readers’ lives as well as tell the farmer’s story. The Accurate Ag Books database is available at: http://www.agfoundation.org/recommended-pubs.

To accompany “Full of Beans,” the Foundation has created an educator’s guide.