Building Relationships a Focus at University of Illinois Ag Communications Homecoming Huddle

Last week during the University of Illinois’s homecoming celebration, the Agriculture Communications Department hosted a “Homecoming Huddle” to discuss how farmers can bridge the gap between rural and urban dwellers using communications tactics. IL Corn’s Director of Communications and Marketing, Lindsay Croke, was joined by Kallee Buchanan, Senior Rural Reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Frank Morris, National Correspondent for NPR.

While the panel discussed fun monikers like “eaters and feeders” to reference city neighbors and the farmers that feed them, as well as how to make dying pasture grass a must-read topic, they also shared knowledge and research from their experiences in the agricultural communications field bridging the rural-urban divide.

Croke spoke of Illinois Farm Families philosophies and focus on building relationships with neighbors in Chicago, as well as examples of increasing the urban understanding of farmers in Illinois.

This rural-urban relationship-building work is an exciting focus of the new James F. Evans Global Center for Food and Agriculture Communications at the University of Illinois. While the Center will continue to produce ag communications students who can think strategically and critically about agriculture and food, new goals for the Center will include professional development events, skills training, visiting global agricultural journalist programs, unbiased media research, executive seminars, and consumer outreach efforts.

The Center is named after Dr. Jim Evans, a pioneer in agricultural communications and professor emeritus. Dr. Evans remains involved in the development of the Center with his signature focus on strategic and thoughtful communications tactics that accomplish good for the farmers of Illinois.