50 years of supporting local farmers, communities

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Over its 50-year history, the Illinois Stewardship Alliance’s causes may have shifted, but it has never lost its focus on advocating for local farmers and communities.

The organization was formed 50 years ago by three college students in southern Illinois advocating for people of that region in coal- and energy-related matters.

Dave and Roz Ostendorf and Mike Schechtman, students at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources in 1974, founded what was then call the Illinois South Project.

“The Arab oil embargo had just sparked a renewed interest in coal. Long scorned in favor of cleaner fuels, coal now seemed to promise salvation from the energy problems, and southern Illinois seemed to be in for another boom,” Jessica C. Weber wrote in a 1979 Illinois Issues story.

“But the Ostendorfs and Schechtman had a different focus. They wanted to know what the next coal boom would mean to the people in the region. Driving around southern Illinois, knocking on doors and talking to anyone who would talk, they became convinced nothing much was being done to prevent the new boom from following the old patterns of exploitation.

“With seed money from the Illinois South Conference of the United Church of Christ (of which Ostendorf was an ordained minister), the three opened a makeshift office in their joint residence in Carterville.”

Five years later, the Illinois South Project had an office in Herrin, and the staff grew to six full-time members who operated as a collective, taking turns acting as coordinator.

“Illinois South Project started making waves right away. In its first year, it published Coal Gasification in Illinois: Problems for the People. At a time when coal gasification was being hailed as a clean way to use Illinois’ high sulfur coal, the handbook sounded a warning that the process would bring problems, as well as solutions,” Weber wrote.

“Since then, Illinois South branched out, taking on a variety of projects directed at improving the economic health and quality of life in southern Illinois. Most, though not all, are directly related to coal and energy issues.”

Beyond focusing on the eminent domain, coal development and coal gasification, the Illinois South Project established the first farmers market in Carbondale in 1975.

“It started in southern Illinois when mining was an issue and the group came together to organize around that, but we’ve always had this strong organizing focus as we kind of shifted, and now we’re a statewide organization,” said Liz Rupel, Illinois Stewardship Alliance lead organizer.

“We’ve really held the reins on that and really focused on sustainable ag, local food policy, but throughout our history we’ve had those deep roots of community organizing.”

“Our roots 50 years ago was folks coming together, realizing that we have an incredibly valuable precious natural resources here in Illinois that are worth protecting and fighting for,” said Liz Stelk, Illinois Stewardship Alliance executive director.

“Folks really wanted to make sure that the destructive practices of strip coal mining would be regulated and hopefully not happen as frequently, but then also the people who were coming together to do that were farmers or landowners who rented to farmers.

“A lot of the way the story kind of evolves is they worked on that in the 1970s and when the 1980s farm crisis came, the feeling was, ‘We worked so hard to protect this land from the coal companies, we’re not going to lose it to the banks.’

“There was definitely a clear feeling that shifted from we’ve protected this space, now we have to keep it in the hands of family farmers.”

Here are some highlights of the Illinois South Project and Illinois Stewardship Alliance over the decades:

1980s

• Received funding from the first Farm Aid concert to recruit attorneys and counselors and 35 volunteers in a Family Farm Program to coordinate a Farm Crisis hotline.

1990s

• Recruited 17 farmers for on-farm research project, Farm and Community Regeneration Program.

• Hosted five regional grassroots roundtables to develop an agenda for the 1995 farm bill and coordinated efforts with the Sustainable Ag Working Group to support appropriations for sustainable ag in the farm bill.

• Won the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

• Established East St. Louis Farmers Market.

• Led a campaign for state legislation to restrict non-family farmers to own or buy farmland.

• Organized members around issues of farmland conservation, rural community building, synthetic fuels and sustainable agriculture.

• Illinois South Project becomes Illinois Stewardship Alliance, with a new mission to support food production systems based on family farms and a greater understanding between rural and urban people about food production and environment.

• Called for a state moratorium on the construction of hog confinement operations with more than 500 animal units until new state rules and regulations for livestock facilities.

• Hosted Hog Wild Conference to ensure representation on governor’s livestock industry task force to address confined animal feeding operations.

2000s

• Founding member of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

• Participated and won the national campaign to end the mandatory pork checkoff.

• Hosted “Planting the Seeds for Change: First Alliance Assembly Highlights” to gather statewide members and groups.

2010s

• Advocated for the Seed Sharing bill passed by the legislature to legalize seed libraries.

• Hosted first farm-to-table series, “Local Flavors,” in central Illinois.

• Advocated successfully for passage of the first Illinois Cottage Food Law.

• Published state’s first Cover Crop Business Directory.

2020s

• In response to the pandemic impact on the food system, distributed $250,000 through the Resilience Fund to assist farmers in scaling up their operations to meet the skyrocketing demand for reliable, healthy local food.

• Successfully advocated for the Seed Library Act to legalize seed libraries in Illinois and the Home-to-Market Act to expand cottage food law as help small farm and food businesses grow.

• Secured $500,000 in state funding for a SNAP match program at farmers markets allowing SNAP recipients to afford fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms.

• Helped found national Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment to stop industrial livestock CAFOs.

• Published “Putting Local Food on the Table in Illinois: Barriers and Opportunities for Value-Added Agricultural Enterprises and Direct Marketing by Illinois Farmers.”

• Passed the Illinois Local Food, Farms and Jobs Act, which created a council to address food system issues and a goal of shifting 20% of state purchasing to local food by 2020.

• Established Buy Fresh Buy Local Central Illinois chapter.

• Held the first Dishing on the Farm Bill event to organize farmers and eaters around federal food and farm policy.

• Stopped a proposed ban on raw milk sales, enabling farmers to legally sell raw milk on farm.

• Successfully supported passage of the Industrial Hemp Act.

• Successfully advocated for funding to create the state’s first program to reward farmers for using the conservation practice of cover crops, Fall Covers for Spring Saving.