CCFB News» August 2023

Highlighted recipes from the 2023 Recipe Collection using local and fresh food.

In June, I traveled to Orlando, Florida for the National Ag in the Classroom Conference. The conference, held June 27-29, featured workshops and classes, guest speakers, a bingo fundraiser, and a traveling workshop.

Get your camera and capture moments by showcasing your best photos depicting theme of Agriculture in the Summer. Send in your photos – selfies, pictures of others, landscape, etc.

For most families summer brings excitement. Pool time. Baseball games. And vacations. For our family summer brings cultivating. Flaming. Zapping. Walking calves. And rodeos.

Senate Bill 850 creates the Grocery Initiative Act. In addition to studying food insecurity in urban and rural food deserts, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will also establish a Grocery Initiative to expand access to healthy foods in food deserts in Illinois by providing assistance to independently owned for-profit grocery stores, as well as grocery stores owned and operated by local governmental units.

Pro-Agriculture Resolutions, once considered a long shot for passage in Cook County, could now set the stage for additional support for ag in the state’s most populated county.

With support from strong relationships previously built with members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Cook County Farm Bureau (CCFB) pursued the resolution and ultimately got it passed this spring, one of 43 counties to achieve passage so far this year.

The Cook County Farm Bureau Foundation, in July, acted to provide tuition support for two Young Leader members who have been selected as participants in the next class of the Illinois Agriculture Leadership Program.

Having braved a gravel road, a long driveway and an unleashed outdoor dog, a college intern approached our front steps ready to give his pitch. He worked door-to-door selling books and digital resources that supplement school coursework in math, science and language arts. I kindly shared some time with the business major on the front porch, where he quickly learned that supplemental education of a different sort defines our kids’ summer days.

Recipe printed with permission from Kelly W | Honey Bee Gardens Farm

This month’s topic is a bit heavy. Bear with me. I want to talk about this little piece of federal legislation commonly called the "Farm Bill”. It is a complex piece of legislation that I will breakdown in simple “Bob” terms.