Listening sessions provide roadmap to local food system

DOWNS, Ill. — Illinois Stewardship Alliance representatives took the oft-used phrase “where the rubber meets the road” literally as they traveled across Illinois to host listening sessions as part of the group’s golden anniversary celebration.

“We have hosted 13 grassroots events all over the state, from top to bottom, from Woodstock early in the summer all the way down to Makanda in southern Illinois,” Liz Stelk, Illinois Stewardship Alliance executive director, said at the final session hosted by Epiphany Farms Estate in Downs.

“We wanted to get farmers, eaters and food system leaders together to celebrate our 50th anniversary, but also to help shape what our organization should be advocating for the next 50 years to make a transition to more local and sustainable agriculture.”

Each listening session included an overview of the alliance, followed by group discussions to share their thoughts on the biggest challenges facing the farming and food system and solutions to those hurdles.

The input will provide the alliance’s first-ever policy platform, which will serve as a roadmap to a regenerative food system in Illinois and guide its policy work in the years to come.

“What an incredible turnout. We’re so pleased that there was over 70 folks who came to talk to us about what they’d like to see the future of Illinois agriculture look like,” Stelk said at the Downs gathering.

“We’re getting input first. We have leaders who will get together and take all of this input from all over the state and then draft what are the problems and what are the solutions that we want to see.

“Alliance members are going to read through it, debate it and we hope by December we’ll vote on an agenda and then we’re going to be set to start 2025 thinking about where we’re headed.

“We’re a membership-based organization, so members set the annual policy agenda and the issues that we’re going to work on. The board sets the priorities for the programming, but we haven’t had like a long-term visionary of where are we headed and what’s it going to take to get there and that it was based on hearing from farmers.

“So, we thought that the anniversary was a really great time to bring folks together to both reflect on the fact that we’ve come this far and also think where do we need to head moving forward.

“This is about the process and the outcome. The process gets people together to get to know each other, share their experiences and recognize that they experience some of the same things no matter where they live in Illinois.

“The outcome is going to be a policy platform that we hope not just guides our organization, but our state leaders are going to be able take a look at what they can do to be able to support small farmers, local food systems and more sustainable agriculture.

“It’s a valuable process and also a really exciting outcome.”

Legislative Efforts

Liz Rupel, Illinois Stewardship Alliance lead organizer, said that once the policy platform is developed, it transitions toward conversations with government officials about legislation.

“It’s a great way to show exactly what our supporters and our members want and we will then take it to our caucuses, our caucus members of the alliance, and from there pull out what specific policies they might want to work on,” Rupel said.

“We’ve heard everything from health insurance to pesticide drift to crop insurance and so we’re really looking like between the lines of what was suggested — barriers and solution-wise — to see what we can come up with to present to the legislature.”

Jeff Hake, of Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains at McLean, and Illinois Stewardship Alliance local food organizer, directed the listening session with an overview of the group’s efforts, followed by opening up the session for feedback from group discussions.

“These are conversations about solutions to fix the problems that are in our current system because the alliance has been in operation for 50 years and we want to know what our next 50 years is going to look like,” Hake said.

“I feel like we’re making a lot of positive changes in our state in working on state food and ag policy. We have a lot of momentum and I am so excited to get all of these people together and talk about what’s really concerning and especially talk about solutions.”

Commonalities

With the final listening session coming to a close, Hake was asked what were some of the most interesting suggestions he heard throughout the 13 get-togethers across Illinois.

“There’s a lot of common threads. The thing that I keep bearing in these conversations and also out there in the present day with farmers I know is a lot of conversations about pesticide and herbicide drift as an issue. One farmer’s drift is affecting another farmer’s field. I feel that that’s something that we’ll look at going forward,” he said.

“Also, a lot of towns have lost their small grocery and that means they have to drive 20, 30 miles to get to the nearest grocery store or even a Walmart or something that’s not going to offer you good, local food. So, how do you support those smaller businesses and small grocers to be successful? Those are two themes that I’ve seen.

“As far as solutions, people weren’t just talking about getting local food into institutions, but it was more like let’s leverage this particular thing to get local food into nursing homes, for example. Those people should have access to fresh, good, healthy food. Let’s figure out how to leverage the state of Illinois and its employees as a buyer and use their buying power.

“It’s a real privilege to get to be involved in all of this. This is the last one we’re doing and the amount of turnout here in McLean County is an absolute thrill and I’m so excited that people are excited to be here and to help us get through this part of our growth and development in this conversation.”

Next 50

Looking ahead to the alliance’s next 50 years, Stelk said it begins with addressing agriculture in Illinois.

“Agriculture is not only changing, but it also has to change. The changing climate is forcing us to make changes to the way we raise and grow food and the way we distribute food,” Stelk said.

“So, whether we like it or not, stuff has to evolve and change, and what we’re interested in is making sure that both the farmers who are already doing that kind of innovative, regenerative, sustainable practices, that they have what they need, that there aren’t barriers in their way.

“Also, that we can figure out how to not only help them thrive, but also that we can understand what the barriers are for other farmers who could be doing those same kinds of practices so that agriculture can thrive for the next 50 years in Illinois.

“In light of culture in general, the pandemic just so dramatically changed how people think about food, their feeling that they want to know where their food comes from and they want to ensure that it’s local.

“We’re also getting to sort of ride the momentum. There’s so much interest in local food, but it’s just not easy. Our agricultural system wasn’t necessarily built with small farmers, local food producers and direct marketing in mind. So, there’s just a lot of barriers that need to be taken down to make things more scale a risk appropriate.”

Infrastructure Development

Stelk said it’s also important to rebuild processing infrastructure that has went by the wayside.

“There was a time when every town had its own mill, meat lockers and meat processing. These things are so much chicken and the egg. You really need a network of people talking to each other because you can just put up a poultry processor. You need enough farmers raising poultry,” she said.

“So, in order to get that kind of future, a lot of what we have to do is not just build the community, but bring it together, make it more visible, so that they can connect and identify opportunities to build the infrastructure, because folks are so isolated and they have such a drive, and there’s so many entrepreneurial spirit and people who want to build things.

“But you can’t take on that risk unless you know, so everybody kind of has to grow at the same time, which means that we need to know each other, we need to trust each other, we need to understand the opportunities and then at the end of the day people need to still value having local food that was raised by people they know.”