CCFB News» July 2021

Professional (PM) memberships are designed for those individuals who do not farm but work within the agriculture industry. The membership dues are only $36 per year. Associate members that are working in an agriculture related job or an agriculturally related career are eligible for an upgrade of membership from an Associate membership to Professional membership.

At the tail end of May, legislators approved the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 budget. Illinois was originally set to receive roughly $7.5 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), however that amount was updated to approximately $8.1 billion. The FY2022 budget includes approximately $42.2 billion in General Revenue Funds (GRF) and $2.5 billion from ARPA, with the rest of the ARPA funds to be spent after legislative action in Fiscal Years 2023-2025.

Seven years ago, we welcomed our big little boy with no official eye color. He entered the world one hot June evening five minutes after the 2014 soybean crop was officially in the ground. 
Unlike with our blue-eyed girl, we skipped reading the books. We had done it before. Our house was still baby proofed, we had never gotten around to removing it after our blue-eyed girl didn’t scale the walls or the chairs. We simply brought up the gear. Washed the supplies. And brought home our big little boy.

The following is a statement from Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert, Jr., regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers announcement of their intention to reverse the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

Thank you to everyone who contacted their State Senator and State Representative asking them to vote ‘NO’ on a “clean energy” package. In June, the Senate returned to the State House with the intention of dealing with the “clean energy” standards for electric generation in the future. However, the Senate adjourned without taking action on the issue. It is clear that this is not the end of the issue and negotiations will continue.

America's Corn Farmers To Sponsor MLB At Field Of Dreams (KFGO) – Major League Baseball announced today that the National Corn Growers Association has agreed to become an official partner of this summer’s MLB at Field of Dreams event. The game will be played at a newly constructed ballpark adjacent to the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, Iowa on Thursday, August 12th and will be broadcast nationally on FOX.

Prices of many consumer goods continue to follow a Superman-style pattern, “up, up and away,” as the U.S. economy bounces back.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, climbed 4.2% in April, marking the largest one-month leap since September 2008.

We still have available space for you to order your Centennial Brick.

USDA is accepting applications for up to $4 million in grants to develop urban agriculture and innovative production projects. USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production will accept proposals for planning and innovation projects online at grants.gov until midnight on July 30.

Farm Bureau Member farm stands are open and bursting with color – red ripe tomatoes, green delicious zucchini, and yellow juicy sweet corn, in spite of the weather! Purchase all your local, farm grown produce at a member farm stand.

A new report released by EY finds that repealing the step-up in basis tax provision would damage the gross domestic product (GDP) and significantly decrease job creation. The study was conducted for the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition, which includes almost 60 organizations representing family-owned businesses.

If you want to get a good feel for recent inflation, perhaps load a cart at the grocery store, fill your vehicle with fuel and complete the trip by buying a pallet of wood at the local lumber company or box store. Dollars just don’t go nearly as far as they used to as consumers find themselves in the midst of an historic uptick in costs. Overall, the consumer price index climbed 5% in May, the highest in 13 years.

When you press your toes into the hot sand and watch the waves crash against the beach, you are most likely not thinking about farmers at all. Why would you be? You are surrounded by palm trees and there is not a cornfield anywhere in sight. However far you may be from an actual farm, in reality, a farmer is right there with you in the form of the many products that their essential work provides to us.

The Illinois Farm Bureau®, working in partnership with the Illinois Press Foundation, awarded 18 grants to help high school journalism efforts throughout the state of Illinois. More than $22,000 total in grants, financially supported by the Illinois Farm Bureau, will be distributed to the schools this fall to pay for laptops, cameras, podcasting stations, and more. The Illinois Press Foundation Board of Directors’ Education Committee selected the grant recipients from a large field of applicants.

Cornell University’s technology, the size of a pollen grain, successfully detoxified bees from organophosphates and is being adapted to protect bees from other pesticides. The discovery launched Beemmunity, a new company whose 27-year-old CEO was a graduate student and a co-author of a study published May 20 in the journal Nature Food.

As a kid, I only knew horseradish as the white, hot condiment that Mom enjoyed on her roast beef sandwich. As an adult, I learned a cool fact about the vegetable with sinus-clearing heat: Illinois ranks No. 1 in horseradish production. Farmers in southwest Illinois grow two-thirds of the nation’s supply, easily winning the horse(radish) race with more than double the acreage of No. 2 California.

Traditionally, Illinois has seen much of its agricultural land used to grow corn, soybeans, and a variety of other produce, but it’s now in its third season of also growing a crop that has had a controversial and complicated past. Hemp has been grown and then banned. And then grown again at the urging of the government during World War II and then banned again.

A major part of the greenhouse season is now complete with Easter, Mother’s Day, and spring gardening plantings complete. The opening of the state had significant impact on sales during the season with the wholesale and retail market strong. Farmers’ markets and farm stands are gearing up for summer vegetable sales. Farmers are expecting strong support with public interest and demand in locally produced fruit and vegetables remaining high. 

Recipe printed with permission from member, Jacek Pawluk

People radiating with positive energy. I am envious. Sometimes, I get bogged down in today’s world. The news is negative. Politics remain bitter and nasty. Regulations are growing. Inflation has hit us all. Taxing bodies are seeking more of their “fair share”.