Ground Broken for Groundbreaking Innovation Center
Recap of my visit to Farm Foundation's new site, plus this weekend's market schedule
Farm Foundation Digs In for Innovation Center
Farm Foundation is a non-profit founded 90 years ago as a trust by International Harvester President Alexander Legge. According to the foundation, it was the first created specifically to serve agriculture and rural communities.
When the foundation was started in 1933, most Americans still were engaged in agriculture, and farmers toiled the age-old way, with natural fertilizers and with insects and weeds controlled as best they could without powerful chemicals. By its third decade, what became known as conventional agriculture was rising to dominance: Artificial fertilizers and broad-scale use of pesticides and herbicides became commonplace. Farmers and their children left the countryside in droves for cities and suburbs.
But the 21st century has brought a greater recognition of major challenges in our agricultural sector, including the impacts of climate change, depletion of healthy soils, the advancing average age of farmers, and the concentration of farmland in fewer and fewer hands.
The number of consumers demanding foods produced with sustainable/organic/regenerative practices is rising. More and more farmers, including the youngest generation, want to produce food using those practices. And many conventional farmers are tuning in to the concepts of precision agriculture to protect soil health and reduce chemical inputs.
It is in this dynamic environment that Farm Foundation’s leaders determined the need to better influence the discussions of the future of agriculture as both a think tank and a “do tank.” Their process is culminating in a new Innovation and Education Center that will be located in Libertyville, an outer suburb about 40 miles NNW of downtown Chicago. The campus will also serve as Farm Foundation’s headquarters.
I attended the groundbreaking for the center held on Friday, August 18, with a ribbon cutting expected by the summer of 2024. The following are takeaway quotes from speakers at the formal ceremony that preceded the groundbreaking. The 14-acre location is part of land farmed by the Casey family from the 1860s until a few years ago; eight members of the family attended the ceremony.
Shari Rogge-Fidler, a fifth-generation farmer with roots in Nebraska, is president of Farm Foundation:
“The seeds of this vision were planted nearly three years ago as we worked together with the executive committee and the board to craft a strategy for the future of Farm Foundation. After 90 years of being in the Chicagoland area, we stepped back and reflected if we wanted to become a virtual organization, move to another location completely in the U.S., or stay in Chicago and make it matter that we're here. Clearly we chose the latter and we're so thrilled that we did.”
“I'd like to take a minute to give special thanks to Tim Brennan [Farm Foundation vice president for external relations] and Todd Price, who are both visionaries bringing this place to life. Tim helped from the very beginning to share ideas, bounce ideas off with each other, how to partner with others to make this happen. And he's also the one who connected us with Openlands to find this special site for us. And Todd, as well as being a great leader and visionary, has been a true workhorse.”
“We selected this farm after vetting over 40 sites in the Chicagoland area. This farm stood out not only for meeting our criteria, but also had a unique quality that spoke to all of us from the very moment we set the sight on this very special farm.
“I hope that each of you will find something today here that inspires you to engage further at this special place with us, from the historic buildings we’re surrounded by, to the natural landscape and the amazing oak tree we're sitting beneath today. And the conservation zones or the ag fields out back as well that will enable engagement about soil health, farming and the many innovations that are exploding in our sector. Last but not least, the brand new building that we’ll build here soon includes a high-tech immersive room, and program space that includes a demonstration kitchen to make connections between food and ag.”
Dan Basse is chairman of Farm Foundation’s board of directors.
“Somebody asked me why we wanted to do this farm and I thought about it for a while. And as I think about it, agriculture is life. We all eat three meals a day. It brings us that nourishment, that health, that vitality that gets us through every day. We at Farm Foundation want to bring agriculture to life.”
“Now there are 480,000 farm families today, they produce $1.26 trillion for the U.S. economy, almost 5 percent [of the total economy] with that 1.7 percent of the population. But 50 percent of the farms that are out there are still unprofitable, and those people have to take a second job.”
“When we think about where we are today, we are building trust and understanding between the intersections of society and agriculture, and that's our mission statement. And we believe the Casey Farm is a key ingredient to getting to where we need to be and allowing the public to come forward… We want to make sure that you know people understand where food starts, and the food table is a large entity for all of us. And we know that we will be part of it as we go forward, not only domestically here for Chicago and Libertyville, but nationally and internationally as we build out our media center.”
U.S. Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider has served Illinois’ 10th Congressional District since 2013. Over his first five terms, his district was tightly focused on Chicago’s North Shore suburbs in Cook and Lake counties. Redistricting prior to the 2022 election added rural territory in northern Lake and McHenry counties without changing the 10th’s strong Democratic lean, and Schneider was easily re-elected.
“Less than 2 percent of our population is working in agriculture, but I’m fairly confident that 100 percent of our population benefits from agriculture at least three times a day. In Illinois, it's more than $50 billion annually. About 20 percent of that $50 billion is exported; in fact, Illinois is the fifth largest exporter of agricultural products in the country. It's not just the stuff we grow, though. Illinois is a leader in value-added food processing and farm machine manufacturing, and in innovation and education, which is why this is so important.”
[Speaking about the pending legislation to update the five-year federal farm bill] “It's not just a matter of food security. It's a matter of national security and economic growth. There will be nutrition assistance for our community because we still have too many people who are struggling to make ends meet. I expect we’ll have crop insurance. We will have to work to protect the conservation funding that was part of the Inflation Reduction Act. I think there's no question that we will be having discussions about how agriculture can lead in our response to addressing climate change. If we are going to lead the way as a nation, especially in the face of climate change, we will need to lead the way in innovation.”
“The center laid out in 14 extraordinary acres here in beautiful Libertyville will be a vital hub for Chicagoland's vibrant food and agricultural ecosystem. It's going to be a state of the art space and media center. It will be a demonstration kitchen and educational fields and woodlands. It’s going to bring people from across the state, across the country, and I think what I was told is across the world to this location to learn about the importance of agriculture. I'm excited to be here for the groundbreaking. I'm more excited to be here for the ribbon cutting.”
Kurt Coffey is the head of the Case IH [International Harvester] farm equipment company’s North American division.
“This is a very important day for the edges of Libertyville, the greater Chicagoland area, but also globally. Because at the intersection of ag and society 90 years ago, the gentleman who was the head of International Harvester was the beginnings of this foundation. And now 90 years later, I stand here as the head of Case IH for what's really an exciting moment in the northern side of the Chicagoland area.”
“At our company, we focus on technology. It used to be tractors, and tires, and tracks and things like that. But now it's its innovation, it’s technology, it’s automation, it’s AI, it’s tech stack that allows the farmer to enroll into a carbon sequestration program that 50 years ago, nobody even knew what that was. And today, it's, it's really using similar tools. And I shouldn't say this, because I'm the guy that leads the tractor company, but it's similar tools, but it's that technology that unlocks that value for us to feed a growing population more sustainably. And those types of learnings come from innovation campuses like this.”
Case IH exhibited its Magnum 400 tractor at the Farm Foundation event. The company and other major farm implement companies are equipping their products with GPS-driven, programmable electronics that enable farmers to pinpoint issues and address them directly, reducing the need for chemical inputs.
This Weekend’s Chicago Region Market Schedule
There’s the old joke about how if you don’t like the weather in Chicago, wait five minutes. That said, this stretch of weather is out there even by Chicago standards. Wednesday, temperatures pushing 100, excessive heat warning with real feel of around 115. Same thing forecast for today.
Then, in the blink of the eye, here’s the forecast high temperatures for this weekend’s regional markets: Friday - 75 degrees; Saturday - 71 degrees; Sunday - 71 degrees. That’s right, folks, the forecast high on Sunday is about 30 degrees cooler than on Thursday.
Just get out there and enjoy it. Our local farmers have had a rough few days in the field and at the markets. Get out there and buy lots of stuff this weekend to help them end this roller-coaster week on a high note.
What great news. Thanks, Bob. After watching a couple of young farmers struggle and fail to build sufficient support for pastured/genuine organic in rural Georgia, I have been please to see real food gain ground even there. These days, I live close to University of Wisconsin, Madison, and I do wonder if university ag departments are keeping up, or if they are closely allied with Big Ag? This is an idle muse, but would love to read about this.