David Lubin

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David Lubin (born June 13, 1849 in Kłodawa (Greater Poland) , Russian Empire , † January 1, 1919 in Rome ) was an American entrepreneur and agricultural reformer of Polish origin. He suggested the establishment of the International Agricultural Institute in Rome, which is to be succeeded by today's Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations .

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Lubin came from a Jewish family who emigrated to England in 1853 and to the United States in 1855 after the death of their father. After attending elementary school in New York, he worked in Attleboro , Massachusetts , for four years in his older brother Simon's goldsmith and jewelry business. In 1865 he followed his already married sister Jeanette to San Francisco , where he worked as a jeweler for a few months, but then went to a timber company in Los Angeles . From 1868 to 1871 he searched for gold in Arizona, without success. On the way back to New York, he lost everything except his clothes and a violin in the Great Chicago Fire . He then worked as a representative for a lamp factory.

After a first trip to Europe, David Lubin and his half-brother Harris Weinstock moved back to California to live with his now widowed sister Jeanette. There they worked for a few months in a clothing store and then founded a mail order business in Sacramento , which within ten years developed into the largest company of its kind on the American west coast.

In 1885 Lubin began growing wheat and orchards near Sacramento . Because of the regional overproduction and the corresponding drop in prices, he dealt intensively with modern cultivation and distribution methods. He was a co-founder of the California Fruit Growers' Union , which worked to ensure the livelihood of farmers. In addition, he helped numerous Eastern European Jews in California to establish an agricultural existence. In 1891 he became head of the International Society for the Colonization of Russian Jews . Finally, he campaigned for the protection and support of farmers at international level. For a planned international agricultural congress he created statistics and studies. Together with his son Simon, he developed proposals for the establishment of an international chamber of agriculture.

In 1896 he suffered from economic difficulties so that he temporarily went to Europe with his family. In Budapest he took part in an international agricultural congress where he presented his project to an international agricultural organization. At the end of the year Lubin settled in Philadelphia , but shortly thereafter opened a branch of Weinstock Lubin & Co in Sacramento.

In August 1904 Lubin went on another trip to Europe to present his ideas about an international agricultural organization to the local governments. On October 23, 1904 he received from the King of Italy, Viktor Emanuel III. , an audience in his hunting seat in San Rossore near Pisa . The king pledged his support and passed the proposal on to his prime minister on January 24, 1905. Lubin and some Italian friends prepared an international conference with the Italian government, which opened on May 28, 1905, at which on June 7, 1905 the representatives of 40 countries signed an agreement establishing the International Agricultural Institute. It should study agricultural developments in the various countries of the world and publish the results periodically. Lubin's further ideas of an organization that should make concrete contributions to the protection of farmers against cartels and other forms of exploitation could not be realized. However, the dissemination of sensitive information worked for Lubin. In 1906 David Lubin became the official representative of the United States at the International Agricultural Institute. The general secretariat of the institute started operations in 1908. During the First World War, the institute continued its work, sometimes with the participation of warring states. David Lubin died on January 1st, 1919 in Rome of the Spanish flu .

After the Second World War, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome took over the tasks (and most of the material) of the International Agricultural Institute, which was dissolved due to the war. The FAO named their library after David Lubin. The holdings of the David Lubin Memorial Library include the Lubins Archives and the Library of the Agricultural Institute. In the Roman park Villa Borghese is named after David Lubin Villa Lubin , once the seat of the Agricultural Institute, as well as the running front of the building street Via David Lubin . In Sacramento, California, an elementary school bears his name. Portions of his estate are on display in the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley .

David Lubin was also active as a writer. One of his works is the novel Let There be Light .

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personal data
SURNAME Lubin, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American agricultural reformer
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Kłodawa (Greater Poland)
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1919
Place of death Rome