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Agriculture has benefited from consistent support on both sides
of the aisle, in Washington D.C. and at the Illinois statehouse.
The Illinois Farm Bureau wants to keep it that way, Bureau
President Richard Guebert Jr. told The Center Square.
At the annual meeting of the Illinois Farm Bureau in Chicago
earlier this month, Guebert made the need for bipartisanship the
subject of his keynote.
“I’ve seen a lack of statesmanship and a lack of willingness to
find compromise,” Guebert said.
Working with both sides is the approach Guebert said farmers
could not afford to change.
“It has served us well,” he said.
The start of 2023 means the beginning of conversations and the
crafting of a new farm bill for 2024, Guebert said.
“If we look back at how the 2018 Farm Bill was put together and
supported, I’d sure like to see that happen again,” he said.
“And many of our members would like to see the same. It was
bipartisan support of a food and commodity policy going forward.
And it was great to see.”
In the past year, the Farm Bureau held 18 listening sessions in
locations across the state to find out what members want to see
in farm policy. Three issues emerged at the top of the list of
concerns.
Members were loud and clear about the need to keep crop
insurance where it is, Guebert said.
“It has worked for us as a safety net and we very much want it
to continue going forward,” he said.
Legislators and consumers have called for conservation measures.
“We have always been conservation-conscious, and we want to
continue to build on those programs,” Guebert said.
Another major area of concern for Illinois farmers is
international trade. Guebert has been talking to legislators
regularly and he feels certain that they understand what farmers
need.
“They get it,” Guebert said.
Still, now is no time to let up on the effort, he said.
“Anytime we let our foot off the gas, things can make a left
turn or a right turn,” Guebert said. “And that concerns us as
well.”
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