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Drought, killer dust storms, torrential downpours, flooding and extreme weather. Illinois, the country’s number one producer of soybeans, and number two producer of corn, has seen it all this year.
Climate change is severely disrupting agriculture, a $19 billion per year industry that is one of the state’s largest. There’s growing recognition, too, of how agribusiness is likely contributing to the problem.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, agricultural production is responsible for about 10% of global warming, with much of that attributable to livestock. In Illinois, with its fertile, black soil created by glacial action, there are 72,000 farms on 27 million acres, three quarters of the state’s land mass.
Change starts with words, and the two phrases making the rounds nationally — “climate smart” and “regenerative farming” — have not quite caught on in rural Illinois. But the actual farming practices that prevent erosion, runoff and carbon emissions, have been practiced for years by early adopting corn and soybean farmers.
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