Recent News
AFT HIRES NEW PROGRAMS COORDINATOR WHO WILL AID ISAP
Jean Brokish joined the American Farmland Trust Midwest Team in October 2019 and provides coordination support for the Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Partnership and the AFT-Vermilion Headwaters Watershed Group. Prior to joining AFT, Jean spent 11 years leading conservation and outreach programs for Oahu RC&D, including oversight for multiple watershed implementation projects, on-farm cover crop research and building Hawaii’s Women Farmer...
AFT-NRCS Soil Health Case Study in Illinois
It’s a tumultuous time to be a farmer anywhere in America, but especially in the Midwest. Climate change is re-shaping how and where certain crops can grow, family farms are disappearing, and increasingly unstable markets are driving many who depend on agriculture to the brink. However, to ensure a sustainable future for their land there’s one place more and more...
ISAP Risk Management Conference: Solving the Resiliency Puzzle
When systems break, they are often analyzed for a solution. Eventually, they are repaired or fixed. Farmers are the world’s best problem solvers—but it seems as if the system is getting increasingly difficult to fix. Recently, the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership hosted its second annual risk management conference focused on “solving the resiliency puzzle”. The conference brought together over 80...
Making Wetlands Smart!
The Illinois Central College (ICC) Demonstration Farm in East Peoria began in the late 1970s with years of research on the effectiveness of in-field practices like cover crops and nutrient management. Now, through the ISAP partnership, it has expanded to include hands-on demonstration of a range of sustainable ag practices, including a denitrifying bioreactor and a drainage water management field....
Have you solved the resiliency puzzle?
Solve the resiliency puzzle! Join members of the Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Partnership for the second state-wide Risk Management Conference on June 27th at the Dekalb County Farm Bureau in Sycamore, Illinois. Rod Weinzierl, director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, will be our keynote speaker, fitting all the pieces together to "solve the resiliency puzzle". We need YOU so that...
PCM Farmer and Report Updates
More than half of U.S. corn is still not planted—Illinois is one of the states the furthest behind. Precision Conservation Management (PCM) realized one benefit from the wet, delayed spring—a few extra weeks to schedule our Resource Analysis and Assessment Plan (RAAP) reports. This spring, our PCM Specialists were able to visit about 200 Illinois producers and present useful data for...