Bill,

The MG program started in the USA in the early 1970s in the State of Washington and then quickly spread to all 50 States in the USA.  There is also a version of it in Canada.    If you copy the below search term into a google search it will return many good write ups on the program. 

origin of the master gardener program site:*.edu

In regards to your comment from a "Master Gardener".    It is not true.   Once a person fails to complete their yearly continuing educational hours requirement or fails to provide xx number of hours in volunteer service, they are no longer a Master Gardener.    If any of the land grant Universities who participate in the Master Gardener program hear of such, they will not hesitate to issue cease and desist notifications to the individual and if needed, institute legal proceedings.  The same applies to those who have achieved the title of Master Naturalist. (MN).

In fact a MG or MN are not permitted to use the title in any means to reap financial gain or reward.   Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists are only allowed to represent themselves as an MG or a MN when participating in an Extension approved and sanctioned event/activity.

There have been many instances where Plant Nurseries, Lawn and Tree Services, or even the Lawn and Garden departments of the big box stores tried to advertise they had a Master Gardener on staff to answer questions.   They were notified to cease and desist which they did.

There is only one person who was ever permitted to use the term Master Gardener in a commercial venture and it was the late Ralph Snodsmith (he passed away at the age of 70) who billed himself   as "America's Master Gardener" on his syndicated radio talk show (Garden Hotline).   He was a graduate of the University of Illinois and heavily promoted the local extension offices as the resource to turn to for answers to questions.  I do not know exactly why was permitted to use the title, but he was.

MG and MN do not have all the answers and are taught never to provide an answer without having a .edu based published document to back it up.   We are taught to know where to go to get answers which are fact based.   The only time it is permitted to give an off the cuff answer is when dealing with a common problem in particular season (i.e. Japanese beetles, or buffalo gnats, etc).    We are not permitted to give answers or assistance to businesses or commercial concerns such as  from tree trimmer companies or nurseries, or lawn and garden departments at stores.   We are to refer their questions to the Horticultural Educator at the appropriate local extension office,

If doing a presentation at a distant location (in another city or county), then the MG or MN is permitted to be re-reimbursed for the travel expenses.

I could tell people I am a Master Gardener, but that is were it ends.  I credit the MG program for getting me into bee keeping.    I was serving as a room host for a 5 week Introduction to Bee Keeping course (being conducted by a local bee keeping association and our local extension office) and it looked interesting.   So I took the course the following year.   My wife would not permit me to keep bees until we both took the course the following year (she also is an active MG).   So I actually sat through an Introduction to Bee Keeping course for 3 years before I started keeping bees.   Each year, I learned something new which I had not gleaned from the class the prior year and I have continued to learn more about bee keeping every day since.  

As a rule of thumb it is always a good idea to suffix any search term in google with   site:*.edu   or  site:*.gov   in order to limit the search results to .edu  or .gov websites.  It usually/generally/normally means the information you receive is fact based.    It helps separate the wheat from the chaff whether it is concerning plants or honey bees or most other subjects.

Steve
Central Illinois

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