Howard E. Babcock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Howard E. "Ed" Babcock (1889 – 1950) was an agriculture leader and farming cooperative manager.

A graduate of Syracuse University, Ed Babcock studied agriculture in the Cornell Summer School of 1911. He then taught school and later became a professor of marketing in the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. While a professor, the The Cooperative Grange League Federation Exchange, Inc. (later known as Agway), a failing farmer's cooperative appealed to him to save it. Under Babcock's management, he eventually made it the largest farmer's cooperative in the world. Upon becoming the President of the New York State Grange, Babcock became an ex officio Cornell Trustee in 1930. He served as Chairman of the Board from 1940 to 1947.^[1]

With a lifelong interest in food production, he served on the Federal Farm Board as well as on the board of the Central Bank for Cooperatives. He was co-president of the National Cooperative Council, now the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and chairman of the American Institute of Cooperation.

He was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in 1976.^[2]