Although Illinois is one of the nation’s leading agricultural states, it can still be a challenge for consumers here to shop for food that comes from local farms, dairies and ranches.
The Senate Agriculture Committee heard testimony Thursday on two bills that seek to make Illinois-grown food more accessible to the state’s consumers.
Senate Bill 3077, by Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, would establish a $2 million per-year grant program within the Illinois Department of Agriculture to help fund projects to enhance local food processing, aggregation and distribution within the state. Those could include projects such as food hubs, canneries, mills, livestock processing and other kinds of infrastructure that help move food from a farm to communities.
“And this is important because while we have some of the best farmland in the world, we don’t actually have the infrastructure in place to feed ourselves,”said Molly Pickering, deputy director of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. “Ninety-five percent of the food that we eat here in Illinois is imported from out of state. That means every dollar that anyone spends on food is not going into our local communities. It’s being exported.”
Senate Bill 3219, by Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, would establish another kind of grant program through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to help fund equipment upgrades at farmer-owned grocery stores.
Jenny Sauer-Schmidgall, who runs a small store on a farm that she and her husband operate in west-central Illinois, said it’s a concept that has been growing in popularity around the country.
“The heart of the home is the kitchen,” she said. “Food brings everybody together. And it would just be really amazing to see the farmers’ stores be a part of a community and keep everything there.”
Both bills advanced out of the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday and could be taken up soon by the full Senate.
