Ag Vision Group Hopeful For New Year Progress

www.agrinews-pubs.com
Nat Williams
2010-01-14

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Individuals and groups comprising an organization looking to advance agriculture in Illinois enter a new year that likely will provide them with receptive ears, but diminishing sources of funding.

Participants in Vision for Illinois Agriculture will meet later this month to take stock of accomplishments and discuss strategies for the coming year.

While money is an issue, the panel’s voice will likely be receptive to a number of movers and shakers, according to a key member.

“Given the fact that a lot of people are running, people are open for input,” said project coordinator Vern McGinnis. “At least they say they are.

“In February we’ll get down to two candidates for governor. If anything’s going to get done in the executive or legislative branches, there may be more potential for opportunity there.”

Vision for Illinois Agriculture is a working group comprised of farm organizations, commodity groups, educators and businesses dedicated to improving the agricultural climate in the state.

The panel will meet Jan. 27, following a Jan. 6 meeting of Farm Bureau’s Legislative Roundtable. Funding will be discussed.

“That issue has to be addressed,” said McGinnis, a former Growmark executive. “Some of these projects DCEO is looking at would be part of the budget.

“When they get their budget they will allocate it toward those things that are part of higher priority for them. And this gets in line with the others.”

The organization’s overarching set of goals include three main points: growing agricultural production and exports to a top-three ranking in the United States; enabling food manufacturing growth to a top-three ranking; and leading the nation in renewable energy.

One of the group’s aims has been accomplished: the addition of agriculture to the Illinois Worknet project, an online and brick-and-mortar job search program operated by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Worknet originally was comprised of four main areas: healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and information technology.

Due in part to lobbying by Vision members, the DCEO added agriculture, food and natural resources as a fifth key sector. McGinnis believes it is more important than ever to draw students to agriculture.

“It now becomes an integrated component of the higher order of things DCEO looks at as they prepare their work plan and allocate resources for the coming year and subsequent years,” he said. “That was a major step forward. The timing of it was right.

“It shows key employment opportunities of agriculture and what career paths are. It’s a live, real-time job-post site. Anybody can post a job on there in agriculture.”

The inclusion of agriculture in the Worknet program is one example of a cost-free accomplishment by the vision group. Another area in which the members hope to make inroads is regulatory reform, included in the organization’s goal of improving the state’s business climate.

A specific goal is the improvement of regulatory responsiveness. Agencies such as the state Environmental Protection Agency are notoriously slow to respond to permit requests for projects such as an ethanol or food processing plant.

“Regulatory responsiveness is part of the big issue,” McGinnis said. “Part of our target is to try to say that there is going to be an answer for an applicant within 180 days, not over 300 days. They need to know whether there is a strong possibility that their permit will be approved, or if they have approval.”

The state of Wisconsin has created an online system that applicants may use to check the status of their permits.

“Illinois EPA, to their credit, took a piece of what (Wisconsin does). They’re starting to post some of that online,” McGinnis said. “But that’s just the beginning.”

The Vision group also is working on improvements in areas such as rural broadband, a subject first championed by then-Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn. Such partnerships likely are to continue.

“We don’t need to start this thing from scratch,” McGinnis said. “There’s no reason to do everything on your own. Find a parade that’s going somewhere.”


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