CHICAGO, Ill. — Challenges facing the ag industry these days will require a higher level of teamwork to succeed, Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) President Philip Nelson told delegates during his address at the organization’s Annual Meeting last week.

“We need to unite more than ever before, given the seriousness of issues we’re facing,” he said.

IFB delegates also approved a special resolution calling on federal officials to do everything necessary to keep the drought-ravaged Mississippi River open this winter to barge traffic. It joined the call made by several Midwest governors, lawmakers and barge operators for the White House to declare the current situation an emergency, and to give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the ability to immediately begin actions it believes will help keep the river open.

Those actions include releasing more water from upstream reservoirs on the Missouri River, which feeds into the Mississippi River near St. Louis, as well as blasting bedrock in southern Illinois sooner than the scheduled project in February 2013.

More than 2,000 delegates and IFB members attended the annual meeting in Chicago Dec. 1-4, where top awards also were announced.

Nelson told delegates a burgeoning debt crisis in the European Union could be a precursor to what can happen in the United States. He said our country has a debt ceiling of $17 trillion, and now more than 50 million people receiving food stamp benefits. “We face our own fiscal cliff,” Nelson said. “It is time lawmakers at the state and national level get their arms around this important issue.”

A new farm bill is needed quickly, and he called for regulations and tax policy that is long-term, “sensible” and built to last for an industry that last year posted a net trade surplus of $34 billion.

“It’s time to inject common sense (in legislation affecting agriculture) so we don’t injure an industry that’s the backbone of this country,” Nelson added.

The IFB’s annual Distinguished Service Awards were given to Harold Guither of Savoy, former state Rep. Richard Myers of Colchester and John L. Huston of Chicago. Guither, professor emeritus of ag economics at the University of Illinois, remains active in the ag industry as a communications advisor for U of I extension and was a national program leader for the USDA’s Extension Service.

Myers, awarded posthumously, was recognized for his overall body of work benefiting Illinois ag. A farmer from McDonough County for 30 years before becoming a legislator, he championed the Livestock Management Facilities Act and supported numerous renewable fuel measures. Huston, a former vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc., is now president of the U of I’s ACES Alumni Assoc. and is past chair of the Illinois Agriculture Leadership Foundation.