Successful annual IFB meeting

This year’s annual meeting of the Illinois Farm Bureau was considered successful with many different discussions and plenty of policy work.

Various items were talked about and passed during the event held in early December at Chicago.

“They got their work done in a pretty good amount of time,” DeLoss Jahnke, IFB RFD Radio Network anchor and editor, told The Central Illinois Farm Network.

Delegates weighed in on policy regarding CO2 pipelines which is an important issue.

“We are talking about pipeline projects transporting for storage carbon dioxide captured from ethanol and fertilizer production,” explained Jahnke.

Producers certainly want to promote ethanol and fertilizer production but there are safety concerns, especially in the rural areas. Jahnke expects this to be a growing issue before Illinois Farm Bureau members around the state.

Quite a bit of ground was covered with policy action including state and local government transportation policy. This includes support for the removal of concrete bridges on township roads with less than 20-foot clearance and banister heights taller than 18 inches. These would be removed from the register of historic places so they can be replaced with a new bridge that allows modern implements to easily pass.

“I imagine that comes up in a lot of places,” Jahnke said. “I can think of some in Vermillion County for example where the road is 100 years old and certainly wasn’t built for today’s operations.”

Another topic included increasing use of third party and digital platforms for all SNAP approved retailers, providing the benefits are not used for service or delivery charges.

Mental health was even covered. This entails units of government investing in the creation of a community health board under the community mental health act to lead and support mental health services in the area. This invites educational resources on mental health and stress management to farmer members.

Eddie Montgomery of the country music group Montgomery Gentry performed for Illinois Farm Bureau members during the annual meeting and a past state FFA officer won the discussion meet and will represent Illinois next month at the national Farm Bureau meeting which takes place in Puerto Rico.

Jahnke notes farm meeting season is here with plenty of places visit between January and March.