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Farming Icon Marty Travis' Call to Action at Stewardship Alliance Event
- Bob Benenson
- Oct 7
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 8
Regenerative Farming Leader and Marketing Innovator Asks for Active Engagement
Illinois Stewardship Alliance, the state’s premier policy advocate for the local food and farm communities, presented its third Farm to Fork Feast fundraiser on McDonald Farm in the Chicago suburb of Naperville on September 27. While the non-profit always showcases farmer-leaders at its big events, this year they shared the podium with a local farming legend.
Marty Travis of Spence Farm, located in the east-central Illinois community of Fairbury, was the event’s keynote speaker. Regarded as a pioneer in modern sustainable and regenerative farming, Marty is a descendant of true pioneers: Spence Farm, founded in 1830, is the oldest family farm in Livingston County. His son Will now manages the farm; Will’s young children are the family’s ninth generation on the farm.
But in his remarks, Marty describes his Down at the Farms organization — in which he collaborates with other small farmers to aggregate and market their crops — as “the most consequential work I feel I’ve done in my life.”
Originally known as Stewards of the Land, Down at the Farms helps orchestrate the planting and growing choices of more than 120 farmers across Illinois and in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri. It also brings in organic avocados and citrus from San Gabriel Ranch in Southern California, and Marty related a story about how he helped save that farm by purchasing their fruit and paying them well above the going wholesale rate during the pandemic crisis.
“Yes, local is important to all of us and to shrink those miles,” Marty said. “But I also want you to know that at Down at the Farms, we have three basic tenets. One, we only work with nice people, that's important. Second is we are here to serve farmers in whatever capacity we have, that's what we will do. And the third is to get their great food, their great products, into communities that will have it right.”
It always takes perseverance to farm under any circumstances, but Marty noted this year has been made especially challenging because of abrupt program cuts and terminations instituted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since the current administration took office in January.
His remarks turned to the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program, which was known as IL-EATS in Illinois. Down at the Farms, in partnership with the Think Regeneration non-profit, was a grantee under the program, and it coordinated the purchase of food produced by small farms for distribution to individuals and families enduring food insecurity.
To me, IL-EATS was a model program, increasing farmers’ economic viability, helping the needy, and strengthening rural economies. But the program ended up in the crosshairs of USDA officials because it was created by the preceding Biden administration and because there were elements of the program that reflected a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. [This publication does not use the acronym DEI because “anti-woke” warriors have turned it into an epithet.]
Marty concluded his remarks with a call to action, asking attendees to speak out and reach out to garner support for programs, such as IL-EATS, that help the farmers and eaters that Illinois Stewardship Alliance represents.
“If you're able to, reach out to people of influence to help with restoring programs that are feeding people, lining up infrastructure so we can make our farms better, more efficient, to do more,” Marty said.
He also noted that conventional farmers, many of whom are often at odds with sustainable farming, may be more open to communication because they too have been hurt by government policies, especially because of the trade war sparked by the administration’s tariffs that have resulted in the closure of important export markets.
“Change can happen from a relatively small group of individuals. Bigger change can happen when we join in and do more,” Marty said.
Liz Moran Stelk, the Alliance’s executive director, followed with a discussion of one of the organization’s biggest recent successes: the establishment of the Local Food Infrastructure Grant (LFIG) program. The program was created to address the decline of the once-robust local food infrastructure — processing facilities, warehouses, trucking and more — as the highly concentrated and centralized conventional food system took precedence in the decades since World War II.
According to Liz, the improvements made over the first two years of the program set the stage for the farming and feeding successes of the IL-EATS program. She explained that the program was predicated on this idea: “If we design something well, this federal investment could do more than just buy food for people. It could create durable, long lasting infrastructure and the relationships to rebuild our local food system that has been gutted by corporate consolidation for decades."
She continued, “We shaped the program to be more than just a food program. For the first time, farmers who don't grow commodity crops had a farm program that was for them, by them. More than 170 Illinois farmers participated. They earned fair prices, they scaled their production, they kept dollars circulating in our communities. Families received fresh, healthy, local food, some folks for the very first time, and it forged new market relationships all along the supply chain.”
Then USDA froze and subsequently terminated the program. But as Liz emphasized, the cause endures: “We proved that when farmers lead, real food system change can happen. This model works, and now we have a bill in Congress that Marty mentioned that we are going to fight like hell to get passed into the next farm bill.”
She praised the ISA supporters in attendance in her closing remarks: “The work that you've supported over the years really has meaningfully moved us in the direction of farmers, members and communities. It's just the beginning. The work to bring our shared vision of a stronger local food and farm system is no easy feat, but we have 50 years of experience under our belt, and it's clear there's so much work for more work to do."
While there were serious issues on the table, so were delicious food and refreshing beverages, all with a local angle. Here are some photos that sum up the great day out.
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