Recent News
CoverCress: Research and Development of Field Pennycress as a Cash Crop for Illinois Farmers
[highlight]Message from Pete Fandell, ISAP Steering Committee Member: ISAP is committed to providing tools and information for farmers and their trusted advisors to improve soil health and reduce nutrient loss. This includes sharing research on new technologies. Members were made aware of research being conducted by CoverCress during a recent call among cover crop specialists. CoverCress is in the early...
ISAP Responds to the Illinois-NLRS 2017-2019
The state of Illinois, through its agencies the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Agriculture, released the 2017-2019 biennial report on its Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy. The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (IL NLRS) is one of many state strategies developed and implemented over the 31-state Mississippi River basin that are intended to reduce both point and nonpoint nutrient losses to improve the state’s overall water quality,...
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....