Illinois Farm Families Blog

Last season, Ron and I hosted the Field Moms’ Acre, where our Field Moms followed an acre of our soybeans through the season.  Recently, we had the privilege of delivering the profits from that acre, in the form of ground pork, to the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry. More than 150 families will have pork on their tables thanks to the 2012 Field Moms.

Despite the drought last year, the Field Moms’ Acre earned a profit of $281. The Field Moms decided to donate that amount to the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry, where Field Mom Amy Hansmann volunteers. We rounded the profits up a bit to buy more than 150 pounds of ground pork.

Amy and her son Kyle met us at the food pantry to present the donation. The executive director for the pantry, Michele Zurakowski, was very grateful for the donation. As you can see, we filled up their freezer!

This year, the Field Moms are following a pen of pigs to market and the growth of an acre of corn and an acre of soybeans. Follow along with the Field Moms’ Acre and Pen all season.

Deb Moore, Roseville

Well, our last tour is done and my head is still swimming!  We saw SO much on this trip, and I’m definitely still processing a lot of it.  The highlight for me was our visit to a Monsanto research facility – I could have stayed there for days!  It was fascinating, and I’m so very grateful I got the chance to go.

One of the really cool things about this tour was that it was an overnight, which gave us a unique opportunity to talk more in-depth with our fellow Field Moms.  In our conversations, I was surprised to learn that another Field Mom did have issues with pork production after seeing the Gould’s farm.  To me it was just like any other production facility; to her it raised some serious questions about how she wanted to feed her family.  So I’ll buy commercially raised pork with no qualms and she’ll make another decision.  Neither of us is making a better decision than the other – but we’re making the right choice for our families.  That’s the wonderful thing about this program; it’s given us insight, allowed us to form our own opinions, and empowered us at the supermarket.  Just like any of the other hot button issues moms face (breastfeeding, going back to work, etc) there isn’t one RIGHT answer about how to feed our families – you just have to do the best you can with the knowledge you have and make the right decision for you.

Our weekend tour started on a Friday night – we had dinner with a bunch of local farmers and just got to have some nice conversations about what was going on in all of our lives – it’s stuff like that that makes me see that there’s really no difference between the farmers and the city moms!  The next morning we were on the road early – we got to see how crops are loaded onto barges on the Mississippi River, and from there travel to St. Louis, New Orleans, and sometimes all the way to China!

We had a lovely lunch and got to tour the Moore’s farm before heading off to Monsanto.  I honestly think I could write a book on everything we learned there! What surprised me the most at Monsanto was that it was built just like a normal farm – crops in the fields, exposed to the elements – no barbed wire, no attack dogs, no privacy fence. For a company that so many people claim is doing evil and  secretive things, they seemed very open, honest, and eager to tell us all about their work.

We had a long drive home this time, and there were a lot of good conversations going on and a lot to reflect on during the ride. Honestly though, I didn’t really have a TON of questions about my food before becoming a Field Mom.  I’m the kind of person who generally does a lot of research, makes a decision, and feels confident in it.  A lot of people asked me on this trip why I wanted to be involved with the program, and I felt bad, because I didn’t have a rehearsed answer for them – I really couldn’t come up with an answer at all.  But here’s why – it’s because of THEM.  The people were the reason I wanted to connect with the Farm Families.  Having spent over 8 years in Texas, I got pretty used to a different way of life than we have here in Chicago.  Most importantly, I got used to the people – hardworking, independent, tough-as-nails women who are equally gorgeous in a pair of work boots or in rhinestone-encrusted flip flops.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Chicago, and I love the women here – but this city is where I was raised; Texas is where I grew up, and the female role models I had there are a big part of that. 

I’m so glad I was able to meet women like Deb Moore, Carla Mudd, Amy Roady, and so many more awesome ladies who helped us out, answered our questions, and made us feel at home in a totally foreign environment. And so with that in mind, if there’s anything I’m going to take away from this experience it’s in the lessons I want to pass on to my Texas-born daughter: To work hard. To have respect for the world around her. To dream big. To marvel in what has been placed upon this land. And most of all, to approach every day as a blessing, an adventure, and to never take anything for granted.  I’m so thankful that the Illinois Farm Families gave me the opportunity to relearn those lessons for myself!

Betsie Estes

In an effort to enhance the understanding of where the food that citizens are eating comes from, a collaborative effort has been established by the Illinois Farm Bureau and Illinois corn, soybean, beef and pork producers. Field Moms is comprised of mothers from urban areas such as Chicago and surrounding suburbs.

This is the inaugural group of Field Moms, who’s nine members were given a tour Saturday of a soybean plot, a sweet corn plot and a first-hand observation of various conservation practices applied to farmland. Field Moms is a group open to any mother interested in learning more about agriculture and the work that goes into the meals they prepare for their families.

Many local farm families open their doors for the Field Moms to make a field trip to their operations. On Saturday, Field Moms met for the third time since the group was established. This time, the family having the tour was Ron and Deb Moore, whose farm is located just north of Roseville, making this tour the farthest journey thus far for the Field Moms.

Field Moms were given soybeans similar to those planted in the plot of the land they studied. They have been growing the beans in pots at their homes. Although the moms’ plants are unable to obtain as much sunlight as the field plants due to their urban location, many of the moms are happy to have seen growth from their beans.

The organizers of Field Moms hope to expand the program to encompass the entire state, as they have had much positive reception for the first year of the program.

According to Amy Thompson, president of the Farm Bureau for Warren and Henderson counties, “it is just as beneficial for us as it is for them. We also get to learn about Chicago life. It is a two-way street.”

Thompson said the program has calmed many of the fears the mothers had about their food, because it allows them to ask questions and receive answers from the actual people growing the food.

“These are educated women who have questions and make up their minds on their own,” said Thompson.

Organizers of Field Moms hope that after the group has completed its tours, they will return home and share the information they have gained with their friends and families. Those in charge of Field Moms wish to reach a much larger audience and expand the number of moms in the group. Eventually, they hope to create a similar group for fathers as well. One organizer said, “There are plenty of people in every county that do not know where their food comes from.”

The first tour Field Moms took in October was a trip to see cattle, raised for both beef and dairy. During the field trip, the moms also examined a corn field, and were given the chance to ride in a combine, an opportunity most city dwellers never receive.

The second tour in March brought the moms to a hog confinement operation to see the process that goes in to creating the pork they serve.

A vital asset for Field Moms is the blog which both the farmers and the moms write for after the tours end. The moms describe their impressions of the tours and any knowledge they acquired. The website of Field Moms program is www.watchusgrow.org.

Along with the blogs, it also contains biographies of the moms and the farming families, videos from past tours, topics of interest and the ability to ask any question about farm families, the moms or the agricultural process.

One mother, Amy Rossi, who is a stay-at-home mom with six children, ages 3 to 15, was interested in learning about agriculture technology.

“I also pictured farming as being simple, but I was wrong.” Rossi said. “The combine is able to drive itself.”

Rossi has already begun putting the knowledge she has acquired to use, as she is much more selective as to which products she purchases to feed her family.

 MATT DUTTON

The Register-Mail

As I sit down tonight to write this, there are exactly 10 days left before I embark on a journey across the state with the IL Farm Families Field Moms.  That is, 10 days to prepare for my journey.  Read:  10 days to prepare my husband for taking care of the kids and getting them where they need to be.  Can anyone else commiserate with me?  I have already begun the daunting task of listing out everything that I do with (but mainly for) the kids:  when medications need to be taken, what sorts of food are okay for breakfast, how much T.V. we should really be watching, where the sunscreen and bug spray are, where they need to be and when, etc., you know the drill.

All that aside, I am excited to get yet another chance to talk about all the amazing things that agriculture in IL is about.  I am so proud to be able to be part of the “soybean” focused tour because soy is such a vital part of my family’s livelihood, namely raising pigs.  I hope that I can bring some new information and another voice to the discussion.  I will be fresh home from World Pork Expo the three days prior, so I am hoping to be able to share some updated information on upcoming innovations in the Pork world, plus foster some more discussions about how closely knit the crop and animal sides of farming really are. 

What will be most exciting about our journey is that it will connect all of the previous tours together.  We will have the opportunity to learn about the soybean planting process (which the Field Moms have already begun at home!) and “in the field” views of how soybeans are grown.  Our tour will also take us to the river to view a barge terminal and learn about where our corn and beans go from here.  In addition, we will be discussing how much of the corn and soybean crops are used in feeding livestock here in ILLINOIS!  No tour would be complete without some amazing meals, too!  We are in for some great hospitality provided by Ron & Deb Moore, friends from the Warren/Henderson County Farm Bureau, IL Soybean Association, and the Cattleman’s Association.  Another awesome treat is the Monsanto Research Farm Tour, where we will have an opportunity to ask lots of questions about things like why GMOs are okay and why we apply certain chemicals to certain types of crops. 

I think all of this is going to fuel a new conversation on the bus ride back.  We may be tired mommies, but we will most definitely leave with a renewed sense that farmers are doing their best to provide everyone’s families with delicious and nutritious foods.

Kate Hagenbuch
Hagenbuch Farms
Utica, IL