By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A recent Illinois-based announcement hails a program as “a turning point for the state’s rural economy.”
A statewide task force last week told the Illinois General Assembly that the local food-and-farm development strategy could trigger $20 to $30 billion in new economic activity per year for the state’s farmers.

Wes Jarrell, a farmer and a professor of sustainable agriculture and natural resources at the University of Illinois, said that “a local farm and food system will bring jobs and economic opportunity to all sectors of the state through expanded food processing systems and increased urban agriculture projects.”

Capturing some of the $48 million consumers spend annually on food originating from outside of Illinois is the goal of the initiative.
The report, Local Food, Farms, and Jobs: Growing the Illinois Economy, presents a strategy for increasing the amount of money spent by consumers and retailers on Illinois-grown food to 10 percent of the statewide total by 2020 and to 20 percent by 2030.
The task force said rural communities would be revitalized and thousands of new jobs in farming and the food industry would be created through the legislation, which has been filed in both the House and Senate in order to get key elements of the plan underway.

A 20 percent increase in local food purchases by state institutions by 2020 is recommmended.

The Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force also called for enhanced training and education programs for first-time farmers and food-sector workers and the elimination of regulatory barriers restricting local food production and marketing.

According to the report: “The business of creating and maintaining all the links in the local supply chain - aggregating, processing, packaging, storing, and transporting products - translates into jobs that cannot be outsourced. Right now, such a system doesn’t exist. There is not enough local food to meet the demand, nor enough farmers growing local food, nor companies in the business of processing local food. This void is what is called opportunity.”

House Bill 3990 was introduced by Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) to implement the 32-member task force’s recommendations.
Missing from the legislation is funding and no cost estimate was presented by the task force. Jarrell said the task force is looking for ways to implement the program “at minimal cost initially.”
Farm World will bring you more details on this legislation as they become available.