Great Grads highlights alumni who contribute to agriculture and veterinary medicine across Tennessee and well beyond. Here is a graduate who boasts a legacy spanning nearly half a century, dozens of organizations, and multiple continents.
A lifelong farmer from Trenton, Tennessee, Barker began his studies at UT in 1955 and quickly became known as a natural leader and determined steward of agriculture. As an undergraduate, he was president of the Independent Students’ Association, editor of the Tennessee Farmer, president of the Dairy Club, and founder of the Campus Beautiful Committee.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in dairy production in 1960, Barker began his career as public relations director of Security Mills, a regionally renowned feed company based in Knoxville. Soon after, he became public relations director of the American Feed Manufacturers Association in Chicago. In 1967, he decided to return to Tennessee, where he became president of the Agricultural Services Association, part of the family-owned, Tennessee frozen-vegetable company Pictsweet.
Finally, Barker became chief executive director and eventually president of the Equipment Manufacturers Institute, an international farm, industrial, and construction equipment company. He would work in this position for twenty-nine years, spending every free moment contributing to agricultural organizations across the nation and, ultimately, the world.
In 1973, Earl Butz, US secretary of agriculture, asked Barker to be a member of one of the first groups to enter the USSR as the Cold War eased to educate international leaders on farm equipment. He was also invited to East Berlin in 1990 to discuss potential investment opportunities, later standing at the Brandenburg Gate, witnessing Germany’s reunification firsthand. His knowledge of worldwide agricultural practices enabled him to anticipate tumultuous changes taking place in farming, leading him to write the book Agriculture’s Contract with Society, which was published in 1991.
“I sought every opportunity to share my knowledge and predictions in order to protect the livelihood of farmers, people just like my parents, who rely on good production to make ends meet,” says Barker.
During his career, Barker served as a leader of the US Department of Agriculture Air Quality Task Force, the Future Farmers of America Foundation Board, and the North American-European Committee on Agriculture. He even helped organize the Japanese Construction and Industrial Association and was an association convention guest for close to a decade. Building upon his relationships with governmental leaders, he became the first chair of the National Endowment for Soil and Water Conservation’s Good Earth Council, organizing a public recognition program at the White House for farm families who conduct outstanding soil and water conservation practices.
After more than forty years of impacting agriculture worldwide, Barker retired in 2001. He and his wife, Barbara, moved to Jackson, Tennessee, in 2005, where they currently reside. In his honor, the Equipment Manufacturers Institute provided a $30,000 endowment to fund the Emmett and Barbara Barker Scholarship, which is available to students in the Herbert College of Agriculture.
“Students are the future. They are the pioneers and trailblazers who will someday be stewards of our world,” says Barker. “They must remember that everything they do is a part of the whole, and you may never know the full impact your life has had.”
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