Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello II joins local Soil & Water Conservation District employees and board members, Conservation Planners for the Capacity Building Initiative, and other supporters of 2024 Soil Health Week in group photo following The Art and Science of Soil Health Advocacy in Action Day Thursday March 7 at the State Capitol.
“There are no better stewards of the land in my opinion than farmers.”
Presentation by Jerry Costello II, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, during Soil Health Week The Art and Science of Soil Health Advocacy in Action Day Thursday March 7, 2024 at the Illinois State Capitol: Thank you so much. It’s wonderful to be here with you on Soil Health Week.
I want to tell you as Rep. Meier mentioned earlier. I had the privilege and honor to chair Ag in Conservation in the House for about 5.5 years. Rep. Meier was the minority spokesperson. He has been such a true supporter of farmers of soil health. I just wanted to make sure that I mentioned that because Charlie has always been somebody who’s willing to reach out and work in a very bipartisan way.
Rep. Bunting and I have a good relationship. Haven’t known him in this side of his career that long but knew him previously with the Farm Bureau, he’s also been a huge advocate for soil health. So, really wanted to mention that about the two of them.
How about a big round of applause as well for everything that is going on when it comes to soil health in the State of Illinois? This administration has what I would call an unprecedented commitment to soil health and the environment. I mean a big round of applause for yourselves and the monumental steps that are taking place here in the State of Illinois.
I want to mention a few of those — obviously Senate Bill 1701, a bill that was passed last year, signed into Public Act. That bill, I want you to be aware there’s $250,000 reflected in the budget to make sure that we appropriate monies to carry out that bill.
I would also like to bring up our Fall Covers for Spring Savings program here in the State of Illinois. I want to put that in perspective for you all. Five years ago, it was 50,000 acres. It took 12 days to fill those 50,000 acres. This year, we filled 140,000 acres in 38 minutes.
We had 241,000 acres that were subscribed for. So, our goal is to build that program to keep growing and to make sure that cover crops are something that any farmer that can practice. They are practicing planting, cover crops. It, it’s an area that the environmental community and the agricultural community can work together on very, very well.
Conservation Planners for the Capacity Building Initiative join Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello II in group photo after Soil Health Week – The Art and Science of Soil Health Advocacy in Action Day.
Another program that I would like to talk to you about a little bit – our conservation planners and our conservation planner program. And first, what I’d like to do is give Dr. Michael Woods credit for everything he did to get this program off the ground. One of the things that Governor Pritzker asked me to do when he asked me to take this position was to go after as much federal money as we possibly could. Dr. Woods helped us with this grant. We took about $3.5 million of state funds and we were able to access over $9 million of federal funds to hire 40 conservation planners in the state of Illinois.
So, at the outset of the program, we were going to hire 25 the first year, the additional 15 in the second year. It’s been so efficient we were able to bring on 40 conservation planners in the very first year. I would also tell you, and this is probably the part that I am the most pleased about, 11 of those conservation planners have gone on to other conservation jobs.
And, unlike a normal situation where you hire somebody and you don’t want them to leave. This program is designed to be a conduit or a pipeline into conservation to train people that hopefully they have an occupation and a career in conservation for the rest of their lives.
They’ve gone on to NRCS, gone on to the Department of Agriculture, nongovernmental organizations like Ducks Unlimited, our Soil & Water Conservation Districts. So, this has been an extremely incredible program.
And I will tell you, we are hoping and I believe I’m going to be positive that we’ll have an extension on that program. So, I think we could have a couple of years extended and there’s no reason to think that this knock on wood is ever going to stop. We’ll keep growing the program and keep putting people into the conservation pipeline.
Lastly, one of the things that we’re really working hard to do as well is work with our Soil & Water Conservation Districts employees to incentivize them with training and education to make sure when these grants and federal monies come down the pipe that we’re in a position to be able to … receive those.
I can personally tell you the commitment that the Pritzker administration, that I have, to soil and water conservation, that I have to just soil health in general in this state. It’s something that is immensely important to me, our department — it’s immensely important to us.
Without the soil that we have here in the state of Illinois, agriculture wouldn’t be nearly what it is. It’s the number one industry in our state, it’s about a $25 billion annual economic impact. We’re the number 1 producer of soybeans in the country. We’re the number 2 producer of corn in the country. We’re the number 1 producer of Pumpkins. We’re the number 1 producer of horseradish.
Illinois is an incredible place to live. It’s an incredible place to be a farmer and we have to respect and make sure that our soil stays healthy. There are no better stewards of the land in my opinion than farmers. Let’s make sure we practice it.
Jerry Costello II, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, watches speakers during Soil Health Week’s The Art and Science of Soil Health Advocacy in Action Day Thursday.
