By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — Since a discussion between farmers during Peoria County’s 1912 Labor Day picnic led to the formation of the Peoria County Farm Bureau (PCFB) a year later, and its incorporation in 1917, Peoria farmers have continued to gather at any opportunity to talk about the latest in machinery, seed technology, the weather and, of course, politics.

Thanks to the Greater Peoria Farm Show – running Dec. 1-3 at the Peoria Civic Center and Exhibition Hall – for the past 28 years area farmers have enjoyed an opportunity to do just that.

Members of the PCFB want those who travel from all over Illinois and the Midwest to attend the show to know that farmers and their families from every point on the compass are welcome.

“The Peoria County Farm Bureau would like to welcome visitors to Peoria and the farm show,” said Patrick Kirchhofer, PCFB manager. “Production agriculture is an exciting, challenging and rewarding career. We hope you find your experience at the show an opportunity to make your farm operation even more efficient and sustainable.”

A history of the PCFB

The Peoria County Farm Bureau has established a long and successful legacy since its humble inception nearly a century ago.
The first year of the PCFB’s existence found few of the 3,500 farmers in Peoria County willing to invest the $1 yearly membership fee to keep the program afloat. By 1918, interest had improved in the organization and yearly fees were raised to $10 per year.

“I most firmly believe that as an organization, we have been of great help and benefit to the farmer of this county from many points of view,” opined Zealy Moss Holmes, the first president of the PCFB, in 1917. “I think that if all will continue to cooperate in the future as in the past years, greater good can be accomplished.”

Holmes, who also served as director and vice president of the Illinois Agricultural Assoc., served as PCFB president until 1923. His home, located in Mossville in northern Peoria County, has been preserved and moved eight miles to Three Sisters Park near Chillicothe, where it was refurbished and stocked with period furniture. The home now serves as the centerpiece of the park’s living history farm.

Holmes’ vision of cooperation among area farmers proved prophetic, as the PCFB continued to grow through the 1900s and into the next century. The makeup of the organization, however, has changed dramatically over the years, in terms of the number of non-farmers who are now members.

Kirchhofer said a steady and continuous drop in farmer-members has left the PCFB with approximately 1,600 members who actually till the soil. This is reflective of the farm community in general, as the number of farmers continues to decline, he said.

Today’s mission

The mission of the modern Farm Bureau is not to support only large farm corporations or mega-livestock farms, said Kirchhofer, adding that the strength of any organization is in its numbers. The more farmers, the bigger the voice the PCFB and the National Farm Bureau Federation have at the political table, he said.

“Our mission is to improve the economic well-being of agriculture and the quality of farm family life. But our main focus is on legislative issues. In order for us to have an impact with legislative leaders, we’ve got to have one voice for agriculture. That’s what the Farm Bureau does,” Kirchhofer said.

“Whether it be issues such as legislation, taxes, road issues, zoning cases ... if it’s something that deals with farmers and rural communities in Peoria County, the PCFB speaks as one voice for our members.”

While the county’s farming landscape has changed during the past century, the agricultural staples of the area remain the same: corn and soybeans. “We also have a little bit of wheat and hay and a few head of beef and hogs. The livestock industry has really diminished in the last 25 years, but not only in our county,” he said.

What has been new and exciting in the Peoria ag market in recent years has been the emergence of specialty farming, community supported agriculture plots and farmers’ markets, according to Kirchhofer.

“The number of smaller farms with less than 20 acres growing specialty crops has definitely grown in the past 10 years, along with organic production and the production of vegetables and fruits for farmers’ markets,” he said. “We’re seeing pumpkin specialty varieties with blue pumpkins, white pumpkins, huge pumpkins ... it’s areas such as that the smaller-scale producers are getting into.”
Kirchhofer points to new farmers’ markets located at Peoria’s RiverFront and in the neighboring communities of Peoria Heights and Bartonville as solid evidence of the micro-farming industry’s newfound presence in the area.

“These producers are filling a void consumers have demanded” by growing traditional or organic fruits and vegetables for farmers markets, he said. “Our organization is going to have to be adaptable going forward, as the farm sector continues to change. The traditional grain and livestock farmer who derives the entire household income from the farm is becoming a rarity.”

However the agricultural landscape changes in Peoria County for future generations, the PCFB intends to continue to honor Holmes’ 1917 pledge to strive for the “greater good” of the area’s farmers.