Does Illinois have an interest in a sustainable Food System?  Illinois spends $47 billion per year on food and 97% of that money leaves the state – most of our food is “imported” either from other states or from overseas.  Hardly sounds like it, but it turns out the answer is yes - as a group of Champaign County residents learned at the Illinois Food System Listening Session at the Urbana Civic Center on Wednesday, May 28.  Within 20 years, the governor and legislature would like to keep $30-40 billion of that money within the state of Illinois.  

In early 2008, Governor Blagojevich appointed the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force after the Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Act of 2007 was passed by the state legislature.  The Task Force is conducting listening sessions throughout the state. The product of the sessions will be a set of policy and funding recommendations to promote organic and local food systems throughout the state. 

This is a monumental undertaking – defining and making recommendations about a food system in an entire state – and the information collection stage that is taking place initially in communities throughout the state is critical to the formation of the recommendations.  The governor has appointed a diverse task force comprising members of the government, organic and specialty crop producers and certifiers, educational organizations, food processors and retailers, farm organizations and specialists, municipal representatives, consumers and community-based organization members – and a chef.   The task force does not manage a budget, but instead will suggest to the governor how he can best make funds available to interested parties to promote a sustainable state food system.

The meeting on 5/28 brought out a group of people with a variety of interests.  There were local farmers, Common Ground Coop staff and administrators, UIUC faculty, Farmers Market patrons and just plain-old-people-who-like-to-eat.   There were suggestions about looking at zoning restrictions that make it difficult for the small farmer to market goods, rules and regulations that discourage food retail in residential areas, purchasing restrictions making it difficult for institutions to buy food from local farmers, the future of farming and the economics of difficulty in encouraging young farmers to start up, the dearth of research showing local/organic food is “better” both environmentally and healthwise.

If the University of Illinois would commit to spending even as little as 10% of its 5 million dollar annual food budget on local food from local farmers, that in itself would keep more than half a million dollars in the state of Iowa – and support more than one farm family so they can make a living…