By Carrie Muehling
NORMAL – A group of 12 “city moms” are learning more about agriculture by visiting farms through the Illinois Farm Families program.
The moms work at Country Financial or Growmark, but even though those are agricultural companies, many employees do not have a farm background. The group had a number of questions for McLean County farmer Dan Kelley when they went to his farm on March 15.
“What’s the difference between field corn and sweet corn? What do you do with your corn? GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are an issue. Are they safe and how do they come about? We’ve also talked about the livestock industry a bit. So it’s just more about farming and crops and agriculture and just a basic understanding of what really goes on besides what they see when they go down the road and see a field of corn,” said Kelley, who farms near Normal.
The topic of GMO safety seemed to be top of mind for many of the moms, who want to make good choices as they feed their families.
“I don’t know a lot about it and everything you do hear in the media is all negative. So I was really interested to hear from the farmers’ perspective. What do they view as GMOs? Why do they use it? The different types of GMOs that there are. That’s one big thing I’ve learned today. We talk about GMOs in a big lump, but there are really several different categories of GMOs,” said Nicole Shake, who works for Country Financial. “[I want to] really educate myself so that I can develop a solid opinion on it based on facts and education and not on sensationalist media.”
Shake wasn’t the only mom with those kinds of questions.
“I knew a little bit about GMOs but I was very surprised to hear the types of GMOs and some of the differentiation between them. The fact that GMOs are as old as what they were – that surprised me,” said Sheila Snyder, who works for Country Financial. “And that it’s really for insects and weeds, that type of thing, that you’re seeing as opposed to some of the ones that you hear about maybe in the public, that they’re represented as changing the food that you’re eating dramatically.”
The group also had the opportunity to visit Kilgus Farmstead near Fairbury. Two more trips are scheduled for later in the year, which will include Bloomington Hy-Vee and a harvest stop with farmer Gerald Thompson near Colfax.
Illinois Farm Families are Illinois farmers who support Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Pork Producers Association, Illinois Corn Marketing Board, Illinois Soybean Program Operating Board, Illinois Beef Association, and Midwest Dairy Association through farmer-funded checkoff or membership programs.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at carrie@wjbc.com.
