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Teach a man to fish

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.”
That Chinese proverb comes to mind as I celebrate last week’s news that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been persuaded to keep the Illinois Department of Agriculture intact. The governor’s plan to shift some of the jobs from the Illinois Department of Agriculture to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources met with great resistance from the agricultural community in Illinois. You should be proud of yourselves for writing the letters, making the telephone calls, and meeting in person with those who represent your concerns at the statehouse. In the end, the leadership of the agriculture committees of the house and senate get the credit for convincing the Governor to leave the IDOA intact. In reality, you must know that those of you who joined together with your fellow farmers and those in agribusiness, truly made the difference.
Let’s get back to the proverb. We have a great opportunity here to teach Governor Blagojevich about Illinois agriculture. I receive emails and letters from readers of this column and listeners to my radio programs almost every day. Wouldn’t it be great if Governor Blagojevich received a letter every day from one of you, sharing your story? Jack Pierce from Charleston, Illinois, wrote “We sorely need to educate the next generation about their agricultural heritage. What it has meant to America, and what it means for our future.” Mr. Pierce hit the nail on the head. We do need to educate the next generation. And we need to educate the leadership of our state and of our nation about the role agriculture has played and will play in the future of our state, nation and world.
I challenge each and every one of you as commodity organizations and as individuals to sit down with pen in hand and write a letter to your state representative, your state senator, and your governor. Tell them who you are and what you do for a living. Thank your state legislators for the effort put forth to keep your Illinois Department of Agriculture intact. Thank the governor for having the guts to change his mind.
Make them accountable to you. Your vote is their career, my friends.
Of course not every laws handed down by the general assembly or every decision made by the governor will be agriculture-friendly. We should not expect them to be. We should make sure those decisions are made by well-informed individuals. Individuals who know their constituents and understand the importance of production agriculture and agribusiness in this state. If not you, then who will tell them? Who will educate them? Who will teach the man to fish so he will have food for a lifetime?
I was in Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago, meeting with a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was called back to the House floor for a vote, so our meeting was cut short, but I learned something very important that day. This particular Congressman called his aide in as he was putting on his coat, and asked, “What is this vote about? Where do we stand on this?”
The aide said “We have received 27 calls on this issue: 25 for and 2 against. You should vote for it.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, you can make a difference. You should make a difference. You did make a difference by taking a stand against shifting jobs from the Illinois Department of Agriculture to other agencies.
As you all know by now, the governor has proposed dropping the sales tax exemption on purchases of farm fertilizer, chemicals, feed and seed for farmers with gross revenues of more than $1 million. To those outside of agriculture, $1 million gross revenue sounds like a lot of money. Perhaps you should share with the governor and his advisors the net revenues that you live with annually. Perhaps you should share with him the names of those who own and are employed by the local businesses, the schools, and the churches that rely upon commerce from your agricultural community to remain viable.
It can’t hurt.