DECATUR, Ill. – Budget cuts at the state level are sending mixed messages to agricultural producers concerning conservation program adoption, according to Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) Environmental Policy Manager, Dr. Corey Lacey.

“On the one hand you have the state government telling farmers to do conservation, and on the other side we have the state government not supporting those programs in a lot of ways,” said Lacey, who spoke to producers from the ISA-Illinois Corn “Your Demand Destination” Stage at the 2025 Farm Progress Show. “The Illinois Fall Covers for Spring Savings program is a great example of that. Another example is our Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs), which have traditionally funded their operational costs at $8.5 million. The last couple of years (FY 2024 and FY 2025) that was cut by $4 million dollars (per year).”

The “Fall Covers” program Lacey referred to, an Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA)-administered initiative that incentivizes farmers to grow cover crops, was nearly a victim of the Illinois General Assembly’s budget axe for FY 2025. Funded at just $960,000 in FY 2024, the program faced a proposed reduction of $300,000 for FY 2025 despite demand for the program’s allotted acres that outpaced budgeted funds each year of the program’s existence.

“What this means for farmers is that there’s less technical services and less support in the field, less ability to adopt conservation. At the operational level for SWCDs, they need staff. For farmers it means there is less support when they try to get an NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) grant or a state government grant. It’s a major problem for farmers that may go overlooked as we focus on other issues,” Lacey said.

He described how ISA has built out their “Loyal to the Soil” program, an educational and awareness initiative supported by Illinois soybean checkoff funds, that aims to showcase how stewardship-focused practices benefit the land while improving farm profitability, water quality and carbon sequestration. “We have a broad range of supporters including the Illinois Environmental Council, SWCDs, Illinois Soybean and a lot of other ag groups who’ve come together to share a unified voice about the need for conservation funding in the state, and the challenges farmers face in their need for support – especially in a time when federal funding for conservation is getting harder and harder to get ahold of,” Lacey said.

The answer to the state funding quandary may have to come from alternate, non-government sources, or perhaps public-private partnerships, according to the ISA environmental policy specialist. “Last year the Association of SWCDs put out (a legislation proposal) that put a tax on ag land that would be transferred from ag land to some sort of other infrastructure,” Lacey said. “If a field moved from corn and soybean to solar, it would have been taxed and that money would have gone into an account that would have helped fund SWCDs. There was a lot of interest in that conversation, also a lot of challenges, and unfortunately we didn’t see any movement on it. There is a lot of intent to bring it back again next year.”

Lacey also spoke about pesticide regulations, which is another topic of his expertise. Like many pundits, he’s concerned about the fallout for farmers from new EPA Endangered Species Act interpretations and regulations affecting crop pesticides that are due to take effect soon.

“The Herbicide Strategy, the Insecticide Strategy and the Mitigation Strategies have all come out and a lot of the requirements that are being put on farmers such as adopting cover crops, switching to no-till, doing things to increase erosion and run-off control, helping drift control, these are challenges that farmers have to face in a climate where the money for technical services is getting lower and lower,” he said.

Echoing many in agriculture, Lacey called into question the science behind the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) recommendations affecting agricultural production, specifically the use of pesticides. “In the agriculture world, we’re already very much into making science-based decisions. In the pesticide world, we go through a very intense USEPA review process. As long as we are on-label in using products correctly, there’s safety measures already in place,” he said, while encouraging farmers and applicators to contact their elected federal and state lawmakers and ask them to withhold their support for MAHA recommendations affecting farm input use. 

Those who may have become complacent in the face of abrupt federal and state environmental policy changes should use their “clout” as farmers and farm industry workers to pressure lawmakers to restore or increase funding for threatened programs, personnel, research and initiatives, according to Lacey. “As farmers you have a unique opportunity to tell your own story in a way that is engaging and exciting. I think that there is an opportunity for farmers to make a difference,” he said. “Farmers are loved in D.C. and in Springfield. Farming is America’s original small business, and everybody wants to be supportive of it.”