BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Thanksgiving week marked the launch of two promotional efforts highlighting the conservation stewardship efforts of Illinois farmers. 

First, the Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Partnership (ISAP) announced the launch of their interactive Conservation Story Map to showcase sustainable agriculture efforts in Illinois. The map also serves to facilitate connections that support healthy soil, clean water, and profitable farms. ISAP’s interactive map, which can be viewed at www.ilsustainableag.org, features farmers, service providers, conservation specialists, research, and demonstration sites across the state of Illinois that are successfully adopting, exploring, or promoting conservation cropping systems and conservation drainage management.

By clicking on a spot on the map, visitors can meet farmers including Adam Braun, a fourth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans on the bluffs of a river in Fayette County. Braun explains how starting small, finding success, and then expanding to additional acres allows him to gain a solid understanding of how individual conservation stewardship practices were integrated into a comprehensive soil health plan on his farm. 

“I’m a systems builder, that’s just the nature of who I am,” Braun said, “and I really enjoy integrating no-till and cover crops into my overall farming system.”

By exploring the “Farmer Profiles” layer of the Story Map, visitors can meet dozens of farmers across Illinois like Braun who are leading the way in conservation agriculture. All of the Illinois farmers found on the map share the challenges they’ve faced and the successes they’ve found during their own conservation agriculture journey.

In addition, the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) announced they would launch their new documentary that spotlights Illinois farmers’ efforts to adhere to the tenets of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS) on Saturday, Dec. 3. The documentary follows Illinois farmers’ implementation of NLRS best management practices to improve soil health and water quality, while grappling with generational differences, financial risks and public criticism. Featuring Bureau County farmer Michael Ganschow and his family, as well as University of Illinois researchers and IFB’s environmental team, the video will make its official debut at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, which is the site of IFB’s 2022 annual meeting. 

The “Sustaining Our Future: A Farm Family Story,” documentary follows three generations of the Ganschow family of Walnut, Illinois, to learn how the family approaches sustainability on their farm. “This problem with nutrient loss was not created in one year, and it’s not going to be fixed in one year — it was created over a long stretch of time,” said Ganschow, in an advance trailer for the documentary.

To create the documentary, IFB video and environmental teams partnered with farmers, county farm bureaus, researchers and other key stakeholders. The process required nearly 25 video shoots across Illinois, dozens of interviews, behind-the-scenes recordings and countless hours of recording and editing, according to an IFB news release.

“The documentary sends a clear message to various organizations and individuals working together: Continue to remain passionately dedicated to improving agriculture’s impact on the environment,” a news release accompanying the trailer stated.

Readers can learn more at http://www.ILFB.org/Environment or watch the full documentary on the IFB YouTube channel starting on Dec. 3.