THE U OF I received a $10-million grant from ADM to establish an institute to research ways to reduce post-harvest crop losses. ..................2
U.S. EPA actions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed could have a “draconian” effect on the rest of the nation, says the AFBF head. ...4
EPA ANNOUNCED Friday E15 blends are safe for use in all cars and pickups produced in 2001 and later. ......................................................5
Monday, January 24, 2011
Two sections Volume 39, No. 4
Ag collegiate chiefs share challenges of tight budgets BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek
Illinois’ four collegiate agricultural programs are experiencing the best of times and the worst of times, the leaders of those programs reported to the Illinois Farm Bureau Board last week. The job market is one of the strongest ever for graduates with agriculture-related Bob Hauser degrees, and that fact is drawing more students, especially from urban areas, to their ag programs, the four leaders said.
“The jobs are tremendous. It’s never been better for students,” said Bob Hauser, dean of the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES). In the midst of a strong ag economy, collegiate ag programs face dwindling state funding, tuition increases, faculty vacancies, hiring freezes, and infrastrucRob Rhykerd ture problems on their research farms. “Our biggest concern is eroding state support,” said Rob Rhykerd, chair of
Illinois State University’s (ISU) Department of Agriculture. Rhykerd and Hauser were joined by Todd Winters, interim dean of Southern Illinois University’s (SIU) College of Agricultural Sciences, and Bill Bailey, director of Western Illinois University’s (WIU) School of Agriculture. Shrinking budgets in Illinois have led universities in other states to Todd Winters target talented Illinois faculty and researchers and to lure top high school seniors with tuition offers, especially to other land-grant universities.
“Some schools are targeting certain areas (of study) they want to strengthen because these are tough times, and we’ve lost some (faculty),” Hauser said. Tuition dollars now comprise more of their budgets, leaving less to maintain and upgrade research farm facilities at the four universities, the leaders noted. “As the farm goes, so goes our teaching Bill Bailey program because we are very applied (knowledge),” Bailey
See Challenges, page 3
Small farms and consumers benefit from farm programs IFB, U of I research counters EWG claims BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek
Periodicals: Time Valued
It’s come to be nearly a perennial event — the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) listing of federal farm payment recipients and its indictment of direct payments. EWG President Ken Cook argues the 2008 farm bill reinforced “an interlocking maze of subsidies that, taken together, force taxpayers to spend billions of dollars no matter what the condition of the farm economy.”
But analysts with Illinois Farm Bureau and the University of Illinois challenge the EWG’s premise that ag supports — according to EWG, the “continued bailout of corporate agriculture” — bolster large producers and agribusiness with little benefit to society at large. A new discussion document developed by IFB argues “good farm policy provides for a stable food supply, soil and water conservation benefits, and nutrition assistance for the nation’s children, senior citizens, and poor.” As a result of farm programs, U.S. consumers on average spend only about 6.9 percent of their total budget on food — half the percentage spent by most Western Europeans and a fifth the percentage Chinese consumers spend on food relative to income. “Part of that program puts a safety net under producers that allows them to manage through a volatile marketplace and affords the consumer relatively cheap food,” IFB President Philip Nelson said. “That’s an economic boon for everyone, including every man, woman, and child who’s a consumer.” Further, U of I ag economist Barrett Kirwan, who has reviewed the USDA data published by the EWG, argues that in terms of relative gain, small farms are major beneficiaries of commodity payments.
The farm bill provides “progressive support,” generally offering smaller producers more significant subBarrett Kirwan sidies per dollar of assets, Kirwan said. And those subsidies provide a crucial safety net allowing many of those producers to
continue farming. Farm tenants cannot offer lenders the collateral held by a landowner, and the security of program payments “allow relatively small farms better access to credit,” said Kirwan. If, as some proponents of small-scale “local agriculture” suggest, small farms provide enhanced environmental benefits, payments also may encourage more widespread stewardship by helping keep land in
diverse hands, Kirwan said. That’s in addition to conservation measures undertaken by program recipients as a whole, Nelson said. “I’m just not sure the vilification of farm programs causing massive farm consolidation and driving industrial agriculture is entirely accurate,” Kirwan told FarmWeek. “There really are people who are lifted out of poverty because of the subsidies.”
GROWMARK PROMOTION
Frank Rapp, right, of Eldorado registers at the GROWMARK booth during the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association annual convention last week in Peoria. Looking on, left to right, are John Holthaus, Christine Duryea, and Steve German, all with GROWMARK human resources. The threeday conference featured exhibits that offered services and products. Read news from the convention on page 4. (Photo by Kay Shipman)
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