Biden Visits Illinois Farm

Today, President Biden visited Kankakee, IL to address Russia’s war on Ukraine and the resulting price hike on food and the administration’s actions for additional tools and resources to support farmers and food processors.

These actions from the Biden Administration include:

• Increase the number of counties eligible for federal crop Insurnace if double cropping soybeans following wheat
• Expanding to 681 additional counties for the total number of counties that qualify for crop insurance to as many as 1,935
• See current counties that allow double cropping here
• Cut costs for farmers by increasing technical assistance for technology-driven “precision agriculture” and other nutrient management tools
• The Biden-Harris Administration is working on streamlining the application process for cost sharing assistance programs through the U.S.D.A. available to farmers participating in nutrient management programs.
• Double funding for domestic fertilizer production
• The initial investment of domestic fertilizer production was $250 million and the administration is now doubling that to $500 million to help lower costs and boost availability to farmers in the U.S.

IL Corn was able to attend this announcement with partners from IL Soybean Association and National Corn Growers Association. “We’re excited to be able to attend this announcement to show the administration the impact of their decisions,” says Rodney Weinzierl, Executive Director of IL Corn, “the fact that they’re making changes and recognizing farmer hardships is reassuring but hopefully only a first step among many as farmers in Illinois continue to feed and fuel the world.”