BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — A recommendation to create a Livestock Working Group charged with focusing on recent pricing issues and price disparity within the industry was among resolutions identified by the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) during their annual business meeting, held virtually on Saturday, Dec. 5. 

“A recommendation by our voting delegates to our board of directors was to establish a Livestock Working Group to look at pricing issues, transparency and profitability in the livestock industry. We will be taking that up when we convene in the upcoming month to decide how they want to move forward with this as a board,” said Mark Gebhards, executive director of governmental affairs and commodities for the IFB. 

“The livestock industry, along with many other aspects of agriculture, certainly went through a number of ups and downs as we have worked our way through this pandemic. Many things have been impacted, but even prior to the pandemic there was a great deal of concern amongst many of our members related to pricing transparency as it relates to the contractual nature of the livestock industry.”

Gebhards added that the proposed Livestock Working Group would also serve to focus on  pricing and transparency issues within the pork sector. The group would align itself closely with the recently-established AFBF Livestock Working Group, which issued its first report several weeks ago, he said.

Gebhards announced the proposal during a wide-ranging press conference following the completion of the 106th IFB Annual Meeting, which was attended digitally by around 900 farm bureau members, leaders and staff, along with media and others. The event, which kicked off with IFB President Richard Guebert, Jr.’s annual address, was held in an entirely virtual format vai Zoom meetings and pre-recorded videos. 

Other highlights of the voting delegate session included resolutions of support for protection of small businesses deemed “essential” from unwarranted liability claims resulting from the pandemic. Another area of focus was crop protection, regarding the use of technology and chemicals. 

“We certainly support good stewardship as an organization, but (the resolution) also reiterates the importance of USDA’s ability to play the role they did this year with the use of existing stocks in relation to the situation we found ourselves in when the 9th Circuit Court made the ruling they did on dicamba,” said Gebhards. 

Property rights, one of the key historic issues of the IFB policy book, was also revisited by the voting delegates. Submittals were approved regarding property rights in relation to solar and wind projects that continue to pop up in the Illinois countryside. “We want to support, in the case of solar, statewide regulations when it comes to hearings for bidding on those projects. We’ve been very involved in wind projects throughout the past seven years, so we are reiterating our support for property rights,” Gebhards said. 

Renewable fuels and their importance as a demand driver was the topic of another resolution adopted by IFB voting delegates. Policy was passed that created support for a statewide biodiesel blending standard for B20 or higher blends, with the involvement of the Illinois Soybean Association and Illinois Corn Growers Association.

During his presidential address, Guebert praised the IFB’s grassroots effort to rally support to defeat a statewide progressive income tax amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot. The initiative supported by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker would have imposed a graduated tax scale on individuals earning over $250,000 per year. Gebhards was asked by a reporter if the farm bureau might support a graduated state tax plan with a higher minimum earnings threshold of $1 million or more, if introduced. 

“Our policy book for quite some time has been very clear that we support a flat tax. Our delegate body reiterated that last year in Chicago at the 2019 annual meeting, so unless that policy were to change we will remain in support of a flat tax and not a progressive tax,” he responded. 

Another reporter wondered why there was little mention of improving rural broadband access within the IFB’s 2021 resolutions. “That’s always been on our radar,” said Guebert. “We will continue to address that with our legislators and our governor. We also carry that to the AFBF and work with them to have dollars appropriated on the federal level or matching dollars where states can participate, and get that money out to the counties and our local cooperatives that bury a lot of these fiber optic lines.”

Gebhards added that the IFB is continuing its membership in the governor’s rural broadband task force working group in support of better access and improvements to rural service.