Latest Agriculture News From The Illinois Newsroom Team
Service techs will be trained for AGCO dealerships at new Parkland facility
A new facility at Parkland College in Champaign will train students to become service technicians for farm equipment made by AGCO. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday for the AGCO Training Center.

Rep. Sorensen ‘optimistic’ Congress can beat farm bill deadline
MOLINE — Congress has a tight deadline to approve a new farm bill. Central Illinois congressman Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., is part of the U.S. House

Illinois food deserts grow as rural grocery stores close
CHAMPAIGN – Food deserts have long been associated with urban areas where full-service grocery stores are hard to find. But rural areas also struggle with

GMO food labeling has been required in the U.S. for a year. Have consumers noticed?
Take a look at the back of the cans and boxes in your cupboards and you’re likely to see some that say “contains bioengineered food

Illinois congresswoman says U.S. farmland is under threat of foreign control
CHAMPAIGN – Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL15) on Monday introduced a bill that would place a five-year moratorium on U.S. land purchases by foreign nationals. The

Plans for a CO2 pipeline in Illinois are on hold
CHAMPAIGN – Plans for a carbon dioxide pipeline in Illinois have been temporarily halted. Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC has voluntarily withdrawn its Application for a

Farmers and farm workers are still waiting for agricultural labor reform after proposal stalls
Congress failed to pass immigration reform in December that would have provided a path to legal status for migrant farm workers and capped wages.

Why the price of eggs, a food staple for breakfast and baked goods, has risen so sharply
Consumers may have gotten used to seeing higher food prices at the grocery in the last couple of years, but egg prices have risen more than any other food product, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Consumer Price Index.

Amid a national egg shortage, local farmers continue to deliver
CHAMPAIGN — Americans have felt the pain of inflation in grocery stores this year. The USDA estimates that the cost of groceries was 10.6 percent

Midwest states court indoor hog and poultry production, despite the millions of gallons of manure
Legislation and programs in states like Missouri and Nebraska are paving the way to welcome large livestock operations by limiting local control over the facilities.

Broadband map holds the key to how much federal funding states will get to expand internet service
States, local governments and internet providers have until Friday, Jan. 13 to challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map.

WILL at 100: A century of programming for the farming world
From its first sign-on in 1922 to the present day, agricultural programming for rural audiences has been an important part of programming on WILL-AM.

Amid a global food crisis, federal funding for agriculture research continues to decline
China has surpassed the U.S., becoming the world’s top funder of agricultural research. Brazil — a major U.S. competitor in agricultural exports — has also increased its funding over the past two decades.