The Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program (IALP) Class of 2012 participants traveled to Champaign/Urbana for an intensive 3-day seminar on “National Agriculture Policy” at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The session also included presentations on Biofuels Policy Issues at the Farm Credit Services headquarters in Mahomet, Illinois.
Members of the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program participated in policy-making panels during their recent three day seminar on “National Agriculture Policy.”
Over a two-year period the group is attending 14 seminars covering current social, political and economic issues in the agriculture industry. Over the course of three days participants learned about environmental, financial, and biotechnology issues and the changing political landscape in the nation’s capital. The session is a precursor to the National Travel Seminar to Washington, DC in March 2011.
Presentations were given by faculty members from the University of Illinois College of ACES, and representatives of the Illinois Farm Bureau, The Nature Conservancy, The Illinois Department of Agriculture and UNICA, a biofuels association from Brazil.
“The future policy and decision makers for the agriculture industry need to understand a broad range of complex political and social issues,” said Joyce Watson, IALF President. “Our program participants have had the opportunity to learn about these issues from some of our nation’s premier experts at the University of Illinois.”
The “National Agriculture Policy” seminar is sponsored by Kim Morton, a member of the IALP class of 1998 and retired Director of Development for the College of ACES at the U of I. Ms. Morton is a member of the IALF Board of Directors.
