BY TAMMIE SLOUP
The board room full of Illinois Farm Bureau and University of Illinois leaders pondered the same question: How can their partnership advance Illinois agriculture?
U of I President Timothy Killeen described the conversation that followed as “electric.”
“The legacy and history of our partnership is clear. We’re in the same ocean, maybe different boats, but we’re going in the same direction,” Killeen said during an interview with FarmWeek and RFD Radio. “I think the main message for me is, let’s really turbocharge this relationship.”
Killeen and fellow U of I leaders visited the IFB office in Bloomington as part of the university’s 12th annual Leadership State Tour.
“I’d say we were pretty frank today on the challenges facing us in agriculture and trying to find ways that we can leverage the relationship and the assets of the university, be it the academic assets, research assets or human capital,” IFB President Brian Duncan said. “There’s significant influence that the university has to help us, whether it’s in getting a farm bill or finding solutions for the environmental concerns that farmers have and are addressing.
“It was very gratifying, rewarding and encouraging to have this kind of a meeting and access to the folks at the university.”
IFB Vice President Evan Hultine, a UIUC alum, laid out his ideas on how to expand the partnership beyond the Urbana-Champaign campus and help bridge the rural/urban divide, including:
- Requiring students take an agriculture class to earn an undergraduate degree to help build a better understanding about where food comes from.
- Building out leadership development as volunteers are becoming more difficult to recruit.
- More immersive learning that includes visiting the university’s three campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.
- Offering short-course work, which would provide “micro, bite-sized educational opportunities” for busy farmers and ag professionals.
Killeen, who was scribbling notes during Hultine’s presentation, responded: “Everything you’re passionate about is our job. We’re trying to do all of the above.”
Later, Killeen said he appreciated the thoughtful remarks from IFB members pertaining to the younger generation and looking to their future.
“We needed to hear some of these thoughts. That’s the purpose of this whole tour; it’s not to assume that we’re bringing solutions and answers to everything that you might be worried about, but to really get a sense of the mutual obstacles, challenges and opportunities. And every one of those things that he brought up, I think are relevant to the way in which we were focused about the student experience,” Killeen said, adding he hopes to continue the conversation with IFB.
The downturn in the farm economy also was part of the discussion.
“The economic challenges are very real,” Duncan said. “Our economic backstop is the farm bill, which is based on 2018 expenses and revenue.”
IFB Directors Jeff Kirwan, Larry Dallas and Brent Pollard also shared how the farm lending ecosystem could be impacted in the coming year, the importance of opening new trade opportunities and new markets such as sustainable aviation fuel and how more research is needed in relation to carbon sequestration.
Killeen noted next year, the university will host the International Congress on Sustainability Research and Innovation, which will have a strong agricultural platform and bring attendees from 60 to 100 countries to downtown Chicago.
Duncan said he’s appreciative the university was complimentary to IFB’s role in Illinois agriculture and the Illinois economy.
“As I look at how agriculture and farming has changed from when I started to today, that has involved lifelong learning,” he said. “It has involved technological advancements that have been brought about by the University of Illinois and the things that they’ve brought to make our members’ lives better, and as a theme of mine, to provide strategic value for Illinois Farm Bureau membership.
“I look forward to continuing dialog and a pathway forward with the university.”
Content for this story was provided by FarmWeekNow.com.