Matters relating to agriculture, including farming and agribusiness.
ADM
Listen to WILL's coverage for interview audio and hear from the reporters on The 21st Show. Just months before he planned to retire, 66-year-old…
Illinois Farm Bureau
It pays to work for the Illinois Farm Bureau. The nonprofit organization’s three top earners all experienced pay increases between fiscal years 2020 and…
In recent years, Urbana billionaire Shahid Khan has added to investments by quietly purchasing farmland through a company he owns called Baloo Enterprises LLC. A spokesperson for Khan confirmed earlier this month that Khan has purchased roughly 24,000 acres of farmland in central Illinois.
Darrell Hoemann/C-U Citizen Access
In 2014, in the midst of a gubernatorial election, the construction of a $1.4 billion fertilizer plant in Tuscola was announced with much fanfare and the promise of state subsidies. Eight years later, no piece of dirt has been overturned since former Gov. Quinn poked a shovel into an open field in a symbolic groundbreaking. Now Tuscola officials say the outbreak of coronavirus will add to the long delays.
Just days before President Trump ordered meat packing plants to remain open to mitigate food shortages, Rantoul Foods in Central Illinois saw its first case. There are now 21. One of the largest meat processing plants in central Illinois is battling an outbreak of coronavirus in which 21 cases of Covid-19 have been already been counted, a company official confirmed Monday
Rantoul Foods, which is based in Rantoul and processes between 30 million and 35 million pounds of pork each month, saw its first case on April 25, said Jerry Jacobsen, the company's director of human resources, safety and business administration. Since then 20 more cases have been reported.
Jacobsen said the company is taking safety measures to bring the outbreak under control.
“The first thing is the health of our employees," Jacobsen said, “because without our employees we don’t have a business.”
The first worker identified with Covid-19 has now recovered and returned to work, he said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. and China both announced billions of dollars in taxes on billions of dollars worth of imported goods - China is seeking tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. products that include soybeans and pork while the U.S. announced taxes on $150 billion worth of 1,300 Chinese products, including electronics. Here’s a look at what farm organizations in the Midwest have to say.
As China and the U.S. swap threats of import taxes on billions of dollars of goods, financial markets fluctuated and farmers are frustrated, saying they worry over hard-built trade relationships with one of their largest customers.
Darrell Hoemann/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
Argentina and Brazil may fill China’s soybean needs if China imposes a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybean exports. And experts say : “China is the world’s largest consumer, and the U.S. is the largest producer, … so they’ll need to replace the U.S. with some other country,”
Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess.org
Congressional leaders said they would explore federal help for farmers should tariffs be put in place but Tamara Nelson, senior director of commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau, said the moves would not help. “Farmers don’t want aid, farmers want to be able to trade,” she said.
Darrell Hoemann/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
More than 100 Illinois pesticide retailers reported the weed killer dicamba drifted and damaged soybeans even when it was sprayed in good conditions, according to a recent industry survey.
