The Gardner Agriculture Policy Program is funded by the Leonard and Lila Gardner/Illinois Farm Bureau Family of Companies endowment. This generous gift is dedicated to the memory of Len Gardner, a leading voice on agricultural policy for decades. The program will coordinate and prioritize analytical and outreach efforts for farm, conservation and international trade policies, elevating the University of Illinois’ voice in the national debate.
The cover crop project seeks to provide farmers with a practical web-based decision support tool designed to help manage cover crops in their fields. The project makes use of existing research to demonstrate the potential for cover crops, as well as providing useful information for decision making and management of this practice. It will also seek to apply future research on cover crops as results are incorporated into updates and new iterations of the tool. This remains a work in progress with a goal towards adapting with the science.
Latest in Gardner Policy Series
2023 and 2024 Effective Reference Prices and the Next Farm Bill
The reference price escalator was introduced in the 2018 Farm Bill and uses effective reference prices to calculate Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments. Effective reference prices can exceed statutory reference…
Mulling over Margin, Part 4: Lessons from Canada’s Whole-farm Margin Protection Program
Introduction High farm input costs, especially for fertilizer and fuel, have reinvigorated arguments for farm support programs where payments are triggered when the cost of production rises. Historically, cost of…
Farmdoc 20 Year Retrospective on Agricultural Trade (In Chart Form)
For some of us, 1999 doesn’t feel like it was that long ago. We were two years into the Asian financial crisis, and commodity prices were in the dumps. We…
Preparing the Future Food and Agricultural Workforce: Trends in Agricultural-Related Degree and Certification Completions from U.S. Post-secondary Institutions
Addressing the agricultural sector’s workforce needs remains a persistent challenge. Slower migration within the U.S. agricultural workforce, combined with declining immigration, has limited the supply of farm laborers (Hertz and…
Wet, Cold, & Gloomy: Comparing Early Spring 2022
Strong and consistent flow of Pacific air masses brought frequent rain and persistently cool, overcast weather that harkened back to challenging springs like 2011 and 2019. But how does this…