.png)
How Southern Illinois is Restoring Its Local Food Infrastructure
- Bob Benenson
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
The topic of an article by Illinois Stewardship Alliance's Jeff Hake
The state of Illinois is so long that its southern part is not considered part of the Chicago foodshed. Carbondale, the region's biggest city and home to Southern Illinois University, is about 330 miles from downtown Chicago, farther than St. Louis, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville and Indianapolis.
Yet the region's devoted group of advocates for a better, healthier, more sustainable food system makes it very much part of the state's local food ecosystem. And their efforts to rebuild Southern Illinois' local farm and food infrastructure is an integral part of a statewide effort to repair the damage done by the years of centralized conventional food system dominance.
The effort in Southern Illinois is the topic of an article published by Jeff Hake on the Illinois Stewardship Alliance website. Jeff and his wife Katie Funk are partners in Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains farm in Funks Grove, located in central Illinois' McLean County. Jeff also holds a day job as the Alliance's local food coordinator.
The following are excerpts from the article:
I and many of my friends and colleagues concern ourselves with food system infrastructure, the things that we anticipate will put food where and when we need it and serve a background function so the rest of our food system can keep humming along. If you know something about our state’s food system infrastructure, you might grade it a D if you were in a good mood.
While most of our state’s farms benefit from a relatively predictable and efficient infrastructure, providing inputs to farmers and moving harvested grains to markets, it results in huge amounts of agricultural production leaving the state while supporting very, very little food production in and for the people of Illinois.
It wasn’t always this way. Our landscape was once dotted with grain mills, packinghouses, canneries, and much more, but 70+ years of policy and economic shifts have denuded that landscape of most of its crop diversity as well as the infrastructure and small businesses that supported it. What few remain are almost entirely to the benefit of large-scale food manufacturers and the farmers who can meet the scale and volume of those manufacturers in order to sell to them at rock-bottom prices.
But I’m happy to say that Illinois’ food system infrastructure is making a comeback.
Two Fridays ago, the Illinois Food System Infrastructure Collaborative traveled to Southern Illinois to witness and learn from some examples of this work in that region. We were honored to be hosted by Pink Tiger Farm, Glacier’s End, and LEAF Food Hub over the course of the day.
Get the full story by clicking the button below.
And also from Illinois Stewardship Alliance, an important reminder on a closely related subject: Applications for shares of the state's $3.6 million Local Food Infrastructure Grant program open tomorrow (February 18). Here are details from Liz Stelk, the Alliance's executive director.
The new Local Food Infrastructure Grant Program will invest in critical infrastructure to scale up the processing, aggregation, and distribution of local food to meet the needs of Illinois communities.
Farms, businesses, institutions, cooperatives, local governments, nonprofits and other entities working with local food will have the opportunity to apply for collaborative grants of up to $250,000 or individual projects up to $75,000 for infrastructure that will support value-added processing, livestock processing, milling, dairy, trucking, food hubs, community kitchens and other critical pieces of local food supply chains.
There will be a required match unless the applicant can prove a high need condition. This grant is made possible with funding through the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA).
Applications must be submitted by March 27.
Comments