We’re back with another episode of the podcast with the Corn Whisperer, also known as Rodney Weinzierl of the Illinois Corn Growers Association. This week, we discussed the ins and outs of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board (AKA, the Illinois corn checkoff) and the Illinois Corn Growers Association, covering topics such as the differences and similarities of each organization, how checkoff organizations came to be, and the strength farmers have behind united organizations such as these.
Rod/Dad’s been with Illinois Corn for 30 years (longer than Claire or I have been alive), so we’ve always been somewhat familiar with the organization…or at least understand that Dad always likes to talk about corn. Most checkoff organizations are old enough now that many farmers aren’t familiar with where the concept of ‘checkoff’ came from or what exactly they do, so we hope to answer some of those questions in this episode as we pester Dad with questions about the Illinois Corn Growers Association (the policy side) and Illinois Corn Marketing Board (the checkoff side).
As we knew before recording this episode, all farmers in Illinois who grow and sell corn contribute to the Illinois corn checkoff – the same goes for other commodities and in many other states. Those funds are then invested by a farmer-elected board of Illinois corn farmers into projects that will ultimately build markets for Illinois corn and benefit those farmers. And that united front gives farmers an incredibly powerful voice. One of my biggest takeaways was understanding just how great the influence that a relatively small population (farmers) can have on things like policy issues or trade or other industries, such as the petroleum industry, when united through farmer-led organizations like a commodity association or checkoff.
“Agriculture has been able to hold its own on bigger policy issues even through we represent…a very small, but important, part of the population. That very small population is a big economic driver for the entire country. So we’ve been able, I think, to do a pretty good job representing agriculture to the rest of the population of the U.S. and be quite effective for our size.” – Rodney Weinzierl, Illinois Corn Growers Association Executive Director and Illinois corn farmer.
Find Rod on Twitter by searching for @CornWhisperer.
Click the play button at the top to listen to the full episode of this week’s podcast. Check out last week’s episode with the Corn Whisperer here. You can listen to all of our episodes online here or subscribe to A Farm Kid’s Guide to Agriculture on the Apple Podcast app. Follow us on Twitter by searching for @FarmKidBlog and @ClaireWeinzierl.
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