Hi, Wes, and all --
Thanks for letting us know about the current funding crisis for Illinois Extension. Illinois Stewardship Alliance is not the only organization that has benefited from a strong partnership with Extension.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO? In the interests of gathering energy to respond to the current crisis (and to develop an action plan), it might be worth repeating a conversation that took place in 2007 (?) between Robin Schirmer and myself.
I was in the midst of writing, passing, and implementing the first Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Act. During this time I met many of the people who had been getting more and more active in building an Illinois-based food-and-farm economy. Robin Schirmer was helping to organize winter markets in the Chicago area and we were getting to know each other.
EXTENSION'S VALUE TO EVERY COMMUNITY. In one particular conversation, I was describing to Robin how important Extension's mission was to a fully functional food-and-farm economy that served every community -- not only in Illinois, but nationally. And not only farmers, but home-makers. Being an urban person and not familiar with Extension activities, Robin asked me to describe Extension's work.
I must have done a pretty good job because Robin immediately summed up Extension's value to any community. She said, "That sounds like a library."
Ever since, some of us who worked on the Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Act initiative have called Extension by the following term:
"Local food libraries" -- every community needs one.
APPLIED TECHNOLOGY. To put an even finer point on the "library" term, Extension offices are APPLIED libraries -- with reference librarians eager to help anyone
-- find real information, and
-- apply it to a real-life situation (e.g., plant identification, crop disease, nutrition, finances, immigration, etc., etc.)
'EXTENSION' OFFICE IN EVERY COMMUNITY?
From an Illinois food-and-farm, urban-suburban-rural perspective, should we:
-- Respond to the State of Illinois's cut in funding to Extension?
-- Study the original mission of Extension in order to adapt it to the 21st century? (other states have already been doing this)
-- Develop our own "Extension" offices -- local food libraries -- community by community? (e.g., hire existing Extension agents to continue their local work under the auspices of some local organization)
-- Something else?
It is my life-long dream to have an Extension-like office in my community (Evanston, IL). In fact, I am actively trying to find an Extension-like home for my personal library of 500+ books -- gardening, farming, construction, earth systems, arts, etc, I am in conversation with a local family-owned bicycle and woodworking shop. Stay tuned. We might be developing a new model.
Local food libraries -- every community needs one.
I look forward to hearing other people's thoughts.
-- Debbie
Debbie Hillman
Evanston, Illinois
D. Hillman Strategies: Food Policy for Voters
...water is a generous visitation from the Holy Female without whom all life would cease. She is the greatest possible gift and could easily take herself away.
-- Martin Prechtel, The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun