The AFBF Annual Convention was underway in Chicago on December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. Agriculture Secretary Claude Wickard addressed a stunned Farm Bureau audience where he emphasized agriculture’s critical role in the war effort: protecting the nation’s food supply. Delegates adopted a “mobilization for absolute victory” resolution and vowed to keep up their end of food production. On the farm, women and boys filled many of the roles left by men who joined the armed forces or worked in war factories. As the war came to an end, AFBF decided that finding overseas markets was the best way to maintain a robust agriculture industry, secure our country’s food supply, and avoid a domestic surplus of ag products.