A farm state tired of depending on imports, Illinois looks to local food

Can a Farm State Feed Itself?

by Brooke Jarvis
Yes! Magazine
posted Sep 04, 2009

Illinois, home to 76,000 farms and more than 950 food manufacturing companies, is a solidly agricultural state in the heart of America’s bread basket. Fully 80 percent of it is farmland. But, of all the food eaten in Illinois, only four percent is actually grown there.

Vast quantities of food are exported to other states and nations, while similarly vast quantities are brought in to feed Illinois’ citizens. It’s a costly arrangement that leaves too many people without enough access to healthy fruits and vegetables.

A new bill, recently signed by Governor Patrick Quinn, will make it easier for farmers to sell their harvests within Illinois instead of shipping them out of state. But first, the state had to figure out what had been making it so hard.

The Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act of 2009 draws on the recommendations of a 32-member task force asked to determine Illinois’ potential for local food consumption. Illinois, the group found, has lots of local food and lots of people willing to eat it. What’s been missing is a way to connect them on a large scale.

(Continued here.)