Fowler hosts Ag committee

HARRISBURG – A committee founded by state Sen. Dale Fowler, R-Harrisburg, and dedicated to improving business for farmers met for the first time Saturday in Harrisburg.

While Illinois is the leading state producer of both ethanol and soybeans, it is also home to 2,640 food manufacturing companies and employs a million people.

Though only 75,000 of those people are actual farmers, "one fourth of all jobs in Illinois are directly tied to agriculture," Ron Deedrick, Fowler's communications specialist, said.

Chicago has a thriving market for food distribution. Deedrick explained that agriculture is extremely broad.

"It's not just corn, soybeans, beef, and pork. People don't always think of companies like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese as being a part of agriculture, but they are," Deedrick said.

In addition to being necessary for survival, agriculture is such a vital part of our economy and has a direct impact on many hot button issues such as immigration. Because of this, Fowler created his agricultural advisory committee composed of representatives from each of the thirteen counties in the 59th Senate District.

Fowler held the inaugural meeting Saturday morning at the Bonan Center in Harrisburg. The representatives, many of whom are involved with farm bureaus, agriculture interest groups and trade organizations, gathered with Fowler and Raymond Poe, Illinois Agriculture Department Director, to discuss pressing issues in agriculture and discuss possible courses of action.

The committee decided that obtaining leniency with weight limits on roads during times of harvest and emergency will be a main initiative.

"Weight limits are going to be a top priority for us to get some leniency on. We are here to make life easier, not more difficult," Fowler said.

Committee members also wants to take action among themselves to work together and educate the public as to what they really do.

"A lot of people don't understand what we do and its significance," Poe said.

Many people in both large cities, and locally have harmful misconceptions of farmers, committee members said. The Illinois Soybean Association recently opened a satellite office in Chicago to help with that perception, but the committee believes that more needs to be done. They want educational programs in schools and transparency in their operations.

"We must get involved locally as well. Host field trips and make yourself available to the media," Jeff Beasley of Williamson County told other representatives.

Larry Miller of Franklin County believes that agriculture advocates need to be more willing to work together.

"We all have individual ideas and specific areas of farming but on the large stage it's just 'agriculture.' We have to work to together and stay united," Miller said.

The committee believes that their creation is the first step in the right direction and that change starts with them. They will deliberate a few times a year and continue to work with one another in an effort to improve agriculture and southern Illinois as a whole.