Polk Auction Company will host a two-day auction March 20-21 at 1269 CR 3200 N, Rantoul, Illinois. Items from the estate of Albert Warner will be sold at four separate locations. A sale preview will be held March 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Online bidding will be available at Polkauctionlive.com. A buyer's premium applies for farm implements and all other items for both online and in-person purchases. See flyer for details or contact Polk Auction Company at (877) 915-4440.
The nation becomes less educated, less healthy, less productive, and less governed by law. Global leadership fades not through defeat but through neglect. MAGA promises greatness, yet what it delivers is fragmentation.
by Van Abbott
Make America Great Again is presented as a promise of renewal, competence, and restored national confidence. In practice, the MAGA movement accelerates American decline across nearly every institutional pillar that sustains a modern democracy and a stable economy. The distance between the slogan and its real world consequences is no longer a matter of opinion. It is visible, measurable, and increasingly difficult to reverse.
Public education stands among the earliest and most damaging casualties. MAGA aligned policies divert public funds toward private and religious alternatives while weakening public schools through budget cuts, ideological interference, and culture war mandates. Educators are vilified, curriculum politicized, and academic standards subordinated to grievance driven narratives. The result is a less prepared workforce, diminished innovation, and a generation trained to distrust expertise rather than develop it.
Public health follows a similar trajectory. Institutions once trusted to protect Americans during crises are hollowed out or publicly discredited. Science is reframed as opinion. During emergencies, messaging shifts from evidence to spectacle, producing predictable outcomes in excess mortality, workforce attrition, and rising long term healthcare costs. A nation that weakens its public health system weakens its economic resilience.
Threats of default, attacks on the Federal Reserve, and disregard for institutional stability undermine perceptions of American reliability.
The independence of the Justice Department, a critical safeguard against authoritarian abuse, is also undermined. MAGA governance recasts the rule of law as an instrument of personal loyalty. Prosecutors, inspectors general, and career civil servants are attacked when facts conflict with political narratives. Pardons become tools of favor, and accountability is reframed as persecution.
Agricultural trade, long a strength of the American economy, suffers under impulsive tariff wars marketed as toughness. Farmers are caught in retaliatory crossfire as export markets collapse. Emergency subsidies replace stable trade relationships, effectively socializing losses created by self inflicted policy failures. Decades of trust with trading partners are disrupted, while competitors move quickly to fill the vacuum.
Manufacturing is promised a renaissance, yet supply chains are destabilized without credible replacement strategies. While rhetoric celebrates factory jobs, automation accelerates and investment shifts elsewhere due to uncertainty and retaliatory trade measures. Growth that does occur is often driven by global market forces rather than MAGA policy.
Perhaps most damaging is the erosion of confidence in the United States dollar and American financial stewardship. Exploding deficits paired with performative fiscal outrage signal incoherence rather than discipline. Threats of default, attacks on the Federal Reserve, and disregard for institutional stability undermine perceptions of American reliability. Currency dominance depends on trust, not bravado, and trust once lost is costly to regain.
Internationally, the United States suffers reputational damage that will linger for decades. Allies are treated as adversaries, treaties as inconveniences, and democratic norms as optional. Autocrats are praised while democratic partners are disparaged. America’s moral authority, once a strategic asset, is exchanged for domestic spectacle and rally applause.
Recent developments suggest the MAGA movement itself is weakening.
The central contradiction of MAGA lies in its claim to strength while systematically weakening the systems that generate national strength. It promises efficiency while producing chaos, sovereignty while increasing dependence, and patriotism while corroding democratic norms. It brands itself as anti elite while delivering extraordinary influence to the ultra wealthy through tax policy, deregulation, and judicial capture.
Responsibility does not rest with a single individual. Media corporations monetize outrage. Billionaires who benefit financially underwrite its spread. A Supreme Court that abandons institutional restraint in favor of ideological outcomes accelerates public cynicism toward the law. Political cowardice allows spectacle to replace governance.
If current trends continue, the future is not marked by sudden collapse but by steady corrosion. The nation becomes less educated, less healthy, less productive, and less governed by law. Global leadership fades not through defeat but through neglect. MAGA promises greatness, yet what it delivers is fragmentation: institutions hollowed out and turned against one another, citizens sorted into rival identities, loyalty elevated above competence, and reality displaced by performance. This is not renewal. It is the slow dismantling of a great nation.
Recent developments suggest the MAGA movement itself is weakening. Infighting is intensifying. Conservatives are reassessing. Politicians are departing. The political stage will likely reset in 2026, setting conditions for a broader reckoning in 2028. Whether that moment produces recovery or deeper decay will depend on whether Americans finally reject grievance politics and recommit to competence, institutional integrity, and democratic self government.
About the author ~
Van Abbott is a long time resident of Alaska and California. He has held financial management positions in government and private organizations in California, Kansas, and Alaska. He is retired and writes Op-Eds as a hobby. He served in the Peace Corps in the late sixties. You can find more of his commentaries and comments on life in America on Substack.
More Editorial Viewpoints
TAGS: the erosion of confidence in the United States dollar, American competitors are moving to fill trade vacuum, MAGA governance recasts the rule of law, MAGA aligned policies divert public funds toward private and religious alternatives, MAGA movement accelerates American decline
Sola Gratia Farm and other recipients used LFIG funding to improve post-harvest handling and delivery of fresh produce.
by Tom O'Connor & Maggie Dougherty
Capitol News Illinois URBANA - It’s a cold and overcast day in November, but Sola Gratia farm in Urbana is teeming with life. The last leafy greens of the season are lined up neatly in the field, while delicate herbs and flowers have been moved inside plastic-walled high tunnels to weather the cold winter months.
To arrive on Thanksgiving dinner plates and in food pantry fridges, the produce from the 29-acre farm must be loaded into a refrigerated delivery van and spirited off to distribution sites.
That delivery vehicle was purchased using funds Sola Gratia, which means “by grace alone,” received under Illinois’ Local Food Infrastructure Grant, or LFIG, program. The grant also allowed the farm to purchase much of the equipment used to clean and package produce prior to sale or donation.
Traci Barkley, the farm’s director, told Capitol News Illinois that infrastructure like this is important for farms to grow but can be difficult to fund independently.
“So the grant, all of a sudden, allows dreams to come true,” Barkley said, smiling.
Sola Gratia was one of 19 LFIG recipients that received a collective $1.8 million in funding awarded in 2024 after passage of the Local Food Infrastructure Grant Act.
The law created funding to support small farmers and food distributors — those with fewer than 50 employees — in producing locally grown food for Illinois communities. The General Assembly found that 95% of the food consumed in Illinois is imported from outside the state.
Shifting just 10% of that purchasing to local farms could generate billions of dollars in economic growth for Illinois, according to the law. But for Illinois to move toward purchasing more local food, farmers and food processors need adequate infrastructure to ensure the food reaches consumers predictably.
That means refrigerators and freezers to keep fresh produce and meat at peak quality; facilities where fruits and vegetables can be uniformly cleaned, sliced and processed into products like jams and jellies; equipment to package goods for sale and vehicles to transport them.
‘It makes an enormous difference’
The Illinois Stewardship Alliance, a local food and farm advocacy group, administered the program in its first year, 2024. The next year, the state appropriated $2 million in fiscal year 2025 to the Department of Agriculture to administer the grants, though the program faced implementation delays.
Between the unspent funds and an additional $2 million allocated to the program in the fiscal year 2026 budget, there will be $4 million available for the upcoming cycle. While small relative to the $55.1 billion in spending measures in Illinois’ fiscal 2026 budget, farmers said the grants of up to $75,000 for an individual project and up to $250,000 for a collaborative project have a significant impact on the recipients.
The Department of Agriculture will continue to administer the LFIG grant cycle in 2026 and expects the application process to open in early January.
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Maggie Dougherty
Grain farmer Jeff Hake gestures to an antique grain combine on his family’s McLean County farm, Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains.
Jeff Hake is a partner at Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains in McLean County, a small family operation growing wheat, corn and fruits. The farm received an LFIG grant to help dry, clean and store grains it processes into flour, cornmeal, pancake mixes, popcorn and more.
Hake summarized the impact of the grant on an overcast winter morning at the farm, where trains frequently pass on the nearby track running along Old Route 66.
“It makes an enormous difference,” he told reporters. “And the impact expands dramatically with these small, thoughtful investments.”
Among the purchases Funks Grove made with the support of the grant were a gravity table and a seed cleaner, or eliminator, affectionately called Ellie. Hake said the first wheat crop to run through both machines was the cleanest the farm had ever produced.
Filtering on density and size, the two machines strain out debris, leaves and dirt. The gravity table even allows farmers to filter out infected grain, which becomes lighter when consumed by disease.
Hake said the family identified a need for the gravity table after they almost lost a crop of corn to a grain-born toxin. The corn tested above the safe threshold for consumption, meaning the entire batch would have been wasted — and revenues lost.
Luckily for the farm, another grain farmer two hours north near Rockford had a gravity table. She ran the Funks Grove corn through, removing enough of the infected crop to effectively save the harvest.
Ripple effect
Hake and other LFIG recipients say the grants have had a ripple effect.
For example, a flower farmer near Lexington to the north cleans her harvested popcorn using the machines at Funks Grove, while a farm-based distillery in Paxton to the west is exploring doing the same for this year’s corn crop. Neither has the infrastructure to clean grain at that level, so collaborating with Funks Grove improves efficiency.
“We’ve learned so much and we’ve acquired all these things. And I very much don't want to be gatekeeping,” Hake said. “I don't want anyone else to have to go through this if we have it within an hour of where they're farming.”
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Maggie Dougherty
FarmFED Co-op president and grain farmer Tom Martin talks with reporters in the Mt. Pulaski building purchased by the co-op with the Local Food Infrastructure Grant.
That same collaboration is core to the missions of the LEAF Food Hub in Carbondale and the FarmFED Cooperative in Mount Pulaski, also former LFIG recipients. While they differ in structure, both provide small farmers with post-harvest infrastructure and assist with distribution.
FarmFED provides produce to local food banks and opens its kitchen to a nearby bakery. Tom Martin is the cooperative’s board president and a grain farmer whose family has lived in the area for over 200 years.
Martin outlined the impact of the support from LFIG on a rainy afternoon at FarmFED’s site on the main square in Mount Pulaski. The grant allowed FarmFED to purchase a building and food processing equipment for local farmers.
“We’re not trying to become a great big co-op,” he said. “We’re trying to provide healthy food, support farmers and support our communities.”
Similarly, Sola Gratia reported that several other farms and organizations benefitted from being able to transport produce in the van they purchased with the LFIG support.
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Maggie Dougherty
Sola Gratia Director Traci Barkley watches on as farm staff load produce into the farm’s refrigerated delivery van, which was purchased with the support of funding from the Illinois’ Local Food Infrastructure Grant program.
“The state invested in us and that’s shared with others,” Barkley said at Sola Gratia. “There’s a huge camaraderie that we try to contribute to.”
Sola Gratia also regularly hosts gardening workshops, farm yoga sessions and educational events with local schools and community groups.
Global networks
Part of the challenge of increasing Illinois’ share of locally produced food, regional farmers say, is the barriers to competing with larger businesses that sell food cheaply and in large quantities.
Blayne Harris is the operations manager and an owner of the Carbondale-based LEAF Food Hub, also known as the Little Egypt Alliance of Farmers. LEAF received an LFIG grant to help reduce waste for their network of farmers and food processors, who distribute food through an online marketplace to a dozen local sites.
Working together allows LEAF farmers to focus less on making money and more on farming, according to Harris.
“The core issue to all of this is just like the economy of scale, and it’s really difficult to compete with the global economy at a regional food level,” Harris said. “The hope behind this is that if we have collective marketing, aggregation, processing and distribution, then farmers can farm.”
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Maggie Dougherty
LEAF Food Hub in Carbondale helps local small farmers with processing and distribution of their produce. The organization, founded in 2016, received support through Illinois’ Local Food Infrastructure Grant program.
However, Harris said, collective distribution models face limitations when there’s no avenue for selling food to larger institutions, such as schools, hospitals and correctional facilities, which serve hundreds of thousands of meals daily.
“Something that I would have as an input towards future infrastructure grants is that they should be paired with some sort of a grant that enables purchasing,” Harris said.
Illinois law mandates that state public institutions must purchase food from the lowest bidder, often larger companies from out of state. The Department of Corrections, the state’s largest purchaser of food, awards nearly 70% of its contracts to just two distributors, according to Investigate Midwest.
A bill proposed in the General Assembly’s spring session would have changed that, allowing public universities to award contracts to local farmers using criteria for sustainability and ethical growing practices. It stalled in committee.
Farmers also face barriers getting local food to underserved communities, according to a 2024 report on food access commissioned by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Maggie Dougherty
A member of the team at Sola Gratia chops produce freshly harvested at the farm in Urbana.
Larger corporations are not incentivized to open chain grocery stores in low-income or rural areas where profit potentials are low, and small, independent grocery stores that fill the gap struggle to meet the low-price expectations set by large competitors.
When grocery stores close, people lose access to healthy foods, creating food insecurity. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported in 2021 that nearly 3.3 million Illinoisians, about 1-in-4, lived in communities that lacked access to fresh, nutritious food.
Growing local
Countering that food insecurity is core to the mission of many of the LFIG recipients interviewed, with multiple farms donating large shares of their produce to local food pantries.
Just Roots, a half-acre urban farm nestled beside the Green Line on Chicago’s South Side, donates up to 50% of its fruits, vegetables and herbs to local food pantries and mutual aid organizations. The rest they sell at an affordable price on a sliding scale to local residents.
The community farm received an LFIG grant to purchase a refrigerated van and expand on-site refrigeration capacity.
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Tom O'Connor
Two CTA Green line trains pass by the half-acre Just Roots community farm in Bronzeville on a snowy day in December. Just Roots purchased a refrigerated van and refrigeration infrastructure for its other farm in Sauk Village with support from Illinois’ Local Food Infrastructure Grant program.
Standing in deep snow earlier this month, Sean Ruane, director of operations and development at Just Roots, discussed the role of local farms, especially in urban areas where green spaces are less common.
“Everything that we're growing here is being distributed within a five-mile radius of the farm,” Ruane said. “That’s very intentional on our part. And part of that is we're distributing all the food that we grow within 48 hours of harvesting it, so it’s as fresh and nutritionally dense, really, as food can be.”
Just Roots also hosts educational events, inviting local residents and children to come see where their food is grown. A teacher by training, Ruane said exposing kids to fruits and vegetables when they are growing up will make them more willing to eat those foods later.
“Our hope is that we can try to kind of help bring people back to, you know, much simpler times in terms of how food is produced and distributed and consumed,” Ruane said.
Upcoming grant cycle
Before applying for a 2026 LFIG grant, applicants will need to complete three pre-registration steps, standard for all grants administered under the Ag Department. The department also recommends preparing documents including payroll logs and tax forms to show proof of eligibility. A full checklist of the necessary forms can be found on the LFIG website.
“We don’t want anybody to get held up this time of year trying to get paperwork from their bank or from their payroll departments or anything like that,” grant administrator Heather Wilkins said. “So always continue to look at the Department of Ag website for those updates as we begin to launch this program.”
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Maggie Dougherty
Illinois’ Local Food Infrastructure Grant program supported Sola Gratia’s purchase of much of the equipment in its washroom used to clean and package the produce grown at its farm in Urbana.
Recipients will be expected to match 25% of their award with a comparable investment unless the project is classified as “high need,” meaning that it fills a critical infrastructure gap or serves underserved farmers and communities.
Points will be awarded to proposals that have community support, are led by historically underserved farmers and owners, increase affordability in underserved communities and more.
A list of allowable expenses and other information about the application are detailed in the LFIG administrative rules.
The farms and food processors who were awarded LFIG funding when it was administered under the Illinois Stewardship Alliance will be eligible to reapply this year, but future projects under the Department of Agriculture will be ineligible for the grant in the subsequent funding cycle.
In the first year of the program, 247 project proposals were submitted, from which 19 were selected. The applicants collectively requested over $23 million in funding. The Stewardship Alliance said this indicates that LFIG fills a major gap.
“There’s still a very, very high need for local food infrastructure in Illinois,” Alliance Policy Director Molly Pickering said. “We’re still trying to move the needle on Illinois farmers being able to feed Illinois, and that is only possible when they have access to infrastructure.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Tom O’Connor is a freelance multimedia journalist. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism.
More on Illinois politics
Illinois Local Food Infrastructure Grant impact, small farm infrastructure funding Illinois, local food distribution Illinois farms, Illinois agriculture grants for farmers, improving food access through local farms Illinois, state funding for local food systems Illinois
The conference blends scientific updates with real-world solutions for corn and soybean production challenges. Presenters will address nutrient efficiency, seeding strategies, row spacing, and disease prevention.
COVINGTON, INDIANA – With the harvest complete and plans for the next season beginning to take shape, area farmers have a key opportunity to gain a competitive edge at an upcoming one-day crops conference. Set for December 12 at the Beef House's Oak Room, the event promises a packed agenda of practical, research-driven insights designed to improve crop production and profitability.
The conference, coordinated by Tricia Herr, will bring together leading university specialists from Illinois and Indiana to tackle some of the most pressing topics in modern agriculture.
Related Articles
“This conference brings together some of the most knowledgeable crop specialists in the region,” Herr said. “Our goal is to give farmers practical, research-based information they can take home and apply to their own operations this growing season.”
The morning session will lead off with Giovani Preza Fontes, an Illinois Field Crop Research and Extension Specialist, who will present recent findings on nitrogen and sulfur fertilization. His talk will cover N timing for soybeans and nutrient strategies for conservation systems like strip-till and no-till.
Purdue Extension corn specialist Dan Quinn will follow, sharing agronomic management tips for new short-stature corn hybrids. He will delve into how row spacing, seeding rates, and nitrogen management impact the performance of these compact varieties compared to their full-stature counterparts.
After a break and lunch, the afternoon session will focus on protecting yields. Boris Camiletti, an Illinois Field Crop Pathology and Extension Specialist, will outline strategies for managing established and emerging diseases in corn and soybeans, including the growing threats of tar spot and southern rust.
The conference runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST, with registration opening at 9:00 a.m. The $35 registration fee, payable at the door, includes lunch. The event also offers Certified Crop Adviser CEUs and other professional credits.
For farmers looking to ground-truth their plans for the coming year with the latest science, this conference is a prime destination. To reserve a spot, visit go.illinois.edu/BiStateCrops or contact Tricia Herr at 765-364-6363.
TAGS: short-stature corn hybrid management strategies, nitrogen and sulfur fertilization research for Midwest growers, corn and soybean disease prevention best practices, conservation tillage nutrient efficiency insights, Illinois–Indiana bi-state agriculture conference information
The century-old Philo Exchange Bank will open a Tolono branch in 2026, celebrating new growth and local recognition for excellence.
TOLONO - For more than a century, Philo Exchange Bank has stood as a quiet cornerstone of community life - the kind of place where tellers know your name and your grandkids’ birthdays. Soon, that same hometown warmth is coming to Tolono.
The locally owned bank announced plans to open its newest branch at 411 N. Long St. in Spring 2026, expanding its reach and its roots at the same time. Unlike many national chains that trade familiarity for speed, Philo Exchange Bank says its mission remains personal.
“We look forward to providing the community with a locally-owned banking partner that will assist in all banking needs,” said Kevin Rogers, President and CEO. “This branch will continue our commitment to provide the friendly customer service that has been our trademark for 142 years.”
The new location will be staffed by familiar faces - residents of Tolono who already serve the community. Alongside teller services, customers can expect access to loan officers and other full-service banking options that have made Philo Exchange Bank a trusted name across East Central Illinois.
If you’ve ever wondered how a small-town bank endures for nearly a century and a half, Philo Exchange Bank’s history might hold the answer. Founded in 1883 by Dr. Calvin Ebeneezer Parker, the institution was later purchased by Elisha Hazen, a local grain and implement dealer, in 1899. Through the decades, ownership passed from the Hazen family to Nathan Rice in 1952, and eventually to Yankee Ridge, Inc. in 2001, which also owns the State Bank of Allerton.
From those early days of hand-written ledgers and horse-drawn deposits, the bank has grown to five branches - in Philo, Allerton, Broadlands, and St. Joseph - while keeping the neighborly charm that has defined it for six generations.
That community focus hasn’t gone unnoticed. In the News-Gazette People’s Choice Awards, Philo Exchange Bank recently placed third in three categories: Best Bank, Best Home Mortgage, and Best Place to Work.
And while the Tolono branch is still months away from opening, the bank’s next community celebration is just around the corner. On Saturday, Dec. 6, families are invited to the Santa Breakfast at the R.E. Franks Meeting Center in Philo. The event runs from 9 to 11 a.m. and features donuts, games, and a visit from Santa himself. Guests who bring a donation for Toys for Tots will receive 10 free game tickets, while additional tickets are 25 cents each.
From its beginnings as a one-room bank to its newest chapter in Tolono, Philo Exchange Bank’s story remains rooted in service, trust, and a belief that community banking still matters.
For more information about the new Tolono branch, visit www.philobank.com or call (217) 684-2600.
Philo Exchange Bank expansion in Tolono, Local community banking Illinois, Philo Exchange Bank history, Tolono new bank branch opening, News-Gazette People’s Choice Awards Philo Bank
A Colona-based nonprofit helps connect food, farming and health care to advance nutrition-based medical interventions.
Image by svklimkin from Pixabay
by Judith Ruiz-Branch Illinois News Connection
CHICAGO - An Illinois nonprofit is working to connect farmers to health care systems as part of an effort to advance a "food as medicine" model for health care.
The nonprofit coalition Think Regeneration in Colona is helping more than 100 farmers in the organization build relationships with health care institutions, including hospitals and clinics.
Ryan Slabaugh, founder and executive director of Think Regeneration, said the farmers work with doctors to prevent chronic disease and support patients through nutrition-based interventions.
"If we can take some of that money and put it back into the local communities of farming and food, we see the ripple effects happen economically," Slabaugh explained. "As well as the positive health outcomes, which are obviously the big priority."
The organization's work is based on emerging science showing connections between soil health, plant nutrition, and human health. Slabaugh pointed out improved diet and nutrition has been shown to significantly improve health conditions like type 2 diabetes.
A lot of these ecosystems have been siloed and working on their own problems.
Think Regeneration supports farmers and ranchers who avoid pesticides, herbicides and minimize synthetic fertilizers. Slabaugh noted while Indigenous communities have understood food's medicinal purposes for thousands of years, modern medicine is only recently rediscovering the connections after decades of prioritizing efficiency over health.
"I think doctors are now starting to understand that their patients are asking them, 'Well, what should I be eating?’" Slabaugh underscored "And this comes from doctors that we work with. They are totally unprepared for that question."
Slabaugh argued doctors receive minimal nutrition education with much more time dedicated to pharmacology, creating an imbalance in how they approach health care. He stressed the initiative to promote food's medicinal uses requires partnerships across many sectors, including transportation, food storage, education, philanthropy and scientific research.
"A lot of these ecosystems have been siloed and working on their own problems," Slabaugh contended. "I think this is a real attempt to kind of break down those silos and bring people back into the idea that we're all kind of participating in health, whether we're directly in health care or not."
More stories ~
Tagged: food as medicine Illinois, Think Regeneration nonprofit, farmers and healthcare partnerships, nutrition-based chronic disease prevention, soil health and human health connection
A fly that was once wiped out in the U.S. is back. Screwworm flies return in Mexico and pose a risk to U.S. farms. If untreated, animals die in weeks from flesh-eating maggots.
DiGiFX Media from Pixabay
A USDA study estimated that a screwworm outbreak could cost Texas alone nearly $2 billion each year. The US government plans to fight the pest from the air by dropping billions of flies over Texas and other states where the larvae has been detected. SNS - The hum of the cargo plane’s engines was steady but distant, drowned beneath the weight of anticipation. Dr. Lena Mireles leaned against the cool fuselage, eyes fixed on the pale glow of morning rising over the Gulf of Mexico. Below them, a swath of farmland, scrub brush, and winding rivers awaited the release. Behind her, row after row of aluminum canisters held billions of sterile male flies — tiny, winged soldiers bred in a lab, irradiated, and readied for war against a flesh-eating parasite that once again threatened to crawl northward.
She tapped her tablet, reviewing the flight path as the countdown ticked closer. In just minutes, the belly doors of the aircraft would open, scattering the living payload across the borderlands of southern Texas and northern Mexico. The plan was simple, almost elegant: drown the wild screwworm population in a tide of infertile mates. But Lena knew it wouldn’t feel elegant if they failed. The New World screwworm was already burrowing into livestock flesh in Chiapas and Campeche. If it crossed into U.S. herds, the economic and ecological damage would take decades to undo.
The cabin lights dimmed as the pilot radioed clearance. Lena stepped closer to the viewing port, watching the earth spin slowly beneath them. It was strange, she thought, to fight something so ancient with something so engineered. The flies would be gone in days, their work done in silence. No guns, no poison — only radiation, instinct, and time. Yet the stakes couldn’t be higher. This wasn’t just pest control. This was containment. Survival. A race between biology and biotechnology, she was flying at 12,000 feet over the front line yet again.
This sounds like a scene from a made-for-Netflix science-fiction movie, right? Actually, billions of irradiated male flies will soon rain from airplanes over southern Texas and northern Mexico as the U.S. government accelerates efforts to contain the alarming resurgence of the New World screwworm — a parasitic fly species that threatens livestock, wildlife, and food security across North America. This scenerio might actually happen in the years ahead.
The plan, announced this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), represents the latest escalation in a long-running battle against a pest that was once eradicated from the United States but has now breached containment lines and advanced to within 500 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The U.S. government is preparing to drop billions of flies from airplanes over southern Texas and northern Mexico to stop the screwworm. This flesh-eating fly lays eggs in animals' wounds, and its maggots eat living flesh. If not treated, the infestation can be fatal in just two weeks.
Photo: Babs Müller/Pixabay
The United States plans to drop billions of flies in the southern US to stop the return of flesh-eating screw worm maggots.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is using this strategy to stop the insect from spreading into the United States. The pest was once eliminated from North America, but in recent years, it has returned, moving north through Central America and into Mexico.
The economic and health risks are growing, especially in Texas, where cattle populations are the highest in the country. Officials are increasing efforts to contain the spread before it reaches U.S. herds.
What is the New World Screwworm?
The New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) is a type of fly that attacks warm-blooded animals. Female flies lay eggs in open wounds or body openings. When the eggs hatch, the maggots dig into living tissue. As more larvae grow and feed, the wounds get larger and deeper. Untreated, this infestation can lead to death.
This parasite affects livestock, pets, wildlife, and people. Animals that have given birth, had surgery, or have open wounds are most at risk.
The adult fly is slightly larger than a housefly, with orange eyes, a metallic blue-green body, and three dark stripes on its back. Maggots can often be seen in wounds, and animals may act restless, stop eating, or isolate themselves.
Eradicated before, but now it’s back
The U.S. removed screwworm from the country in 1966 using a process called the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). This method involves releasing large numbers of male flies that have been sterilized using radiation. These sterile males mate with wild females, but no larvae hatch. Over time, this lowers the pest’s population.
SIT worked well for decades. A biological barrier was created in Panama to stop the screwworm from moving north again. But in 2023, that barrier was broken. Since then, screwworm has spread through Central America and into Mexico.
New scientific models show that screwworm is most likely to enter the U.S. through southern Mexico. Areas with warm climates and large livestock populations, such as Texas and Florida, are at the highest risk. The fly can travel up to 12 miles to find a host.
Cold weather limits its survival, but summer weather and the movement of animals or wildlife can carry the pest into new regions, including northern states.
Serious threat to farmers and the economy
Texas has about 12.5 million head of cattle — the largest number in the country. A USDA study estimated that a screwworm outbreak could cost Texas nearly $2 billion each year. This number includes lost livestock, lower meat and dairy production, higher veterinary costs, and labor shortages during an outbreak.
If the pest spreads to other states, the economic damage could rise even more. Past outbreaks, such as the one in 1976, required a large number of workers to manage. Today, there are fewer workers in agriculture, making it harder to handle a crisis.
The screwworm is also a threat to food supply chains and public health. The pest does not only harm farm animals — deer, wild hogs, pets, and even humans are at risk.
What the U.S. is doing now to fight back
To prevent an outbreak, the USDA is building a new sterile fly factory in southern Mexico, expected to open in July 2026. Until then, a fly distribution center in southern Texas will help deliver sterile flies from an existing factory in Panama.
Sterile flies will be dropped from airplanes over high-risk areas in Texas and Mexico. The goal is to stop wild screwworms from reproducing by filling the environment with sterile males. This method is safer for the environment than chemical spraying and only targets screwworms.
At the same time, Texas has begun forming state response teams to monitor and respond to new cases. These efforts are focused on protecting livestock and keeping the pest from crossing into U.S. herds.
Photo: Kylee Alons/Unsplash
Response teams focusing on protecting livestock will monitor herds in Texas, hoping to block the spread of screwworm swarms.
Early signs and what to watch for
Farmers and veterinarians are key to spotting screwworm early. Watching animals closely is the best way to catch an infestation before it spreads.
Common signs include:
Foul-smelling wounds with visible maggots
Animals licking or biting at their wounds
Lesions at dehorning or branding sites
Unusual behavior such as restlessness or not eating
By the third day after infestation, there may already be hundreds or thousands of maggots in a wound. If untreated, the wounds grow deeper and cause major damage.
Government agencies and agricultural groups are sharing guides and training materials with farmers to help identify and report possible cases quickly.
A Race against time
The reappearance of the New World screwworm shows how quickly old threats can return. While the USDA and its partners work to stop the pest, experts warn that control will take time and constant effort. Warmer months increase the risk of spread, and infected animals can quickly spread the larvae across large areas.
While the method of dropping sterile flies is proven and safe, it works slowly. It requires months - sometimes years - of regular releases to lower populations. But doing nothing is not an option. Without action, the pest could take hold again in the U.S., harming animals and causing long-term economic loss.
Stopping the screwworm now may save American farmers and ranchers billions in the future.
Republicans in Congress are jamming through a sweeping bill to fund handouts to the rich - at the cost of jobs, health care, and food in rural America.
Photo: Jakob Owens/Unsplash
byMichael Chameides OtherWords
Right now, Congress is working on a giant, fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
As the Communications and Policy Director for the Rural Democracy Initiative, I’ve been hearing from rural leaders across the country about the devastating impacts this bill would have.
The good news is it’s not too late. But there’s little time to spare.
This dangerous, unpopular bill would increase costs for rural working families by thousands of dollars per year, leaving millions hungry and without health care — all to provide tax breaks and handouts to the wealthy and special interests.
Here are just six of the worst provisions.
1. It guts rural healthcare.
The bill would drastically cut Medicaid and impose new barriers to care. It would take healthcare away from 13.8 million Americans and increase the cost for millions more. In some states, 50 percent of rural children get healthcare from Medicaid. Millions more rely on access to clinics and hospitals that would likely close because of these cuts.
The plan includes approximately $290-$319 billion in cuts to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) even as the cost of groceries continues to escalate. More than 15 percent of families in small towns and rural areas rely on this support to feed their families.
3. It shifts costs to states and local governments.
State and local governments in rural areas depend more on federal funding from programs like SNAP and Medicaid than other states. Slashing federal funding to states would create new burdens for rural states that are already struggling to provide critical public services like health care, transportation, and emergency response services to local communities.
4. It takes away local control.
Landowners have fought to stop the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines by passing bans and moratoria, as well as enacting county setbacks and safety requirements to protect their communities.
But this bill would overrule state and local laws and ordinances, override local voices, and deprive residents of a fair opportunity to evaluate the adverse impacts of pipelines. It also sets up a “pay to play” system under which companies can simply pay for pipeline, mining, and drilling permits — and avoid public comment and legal challenges.
5. It ends clean energy and infrastructure funding.
The bill would phase out existing tax credits for wind, solar, batteries, geothermal, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing. It would also take away $262 million in funding for energy efficiency and conservation grants as well as transportation infrastructure.
Ending these tax credits will increase household energy costs, which are already higher in many rural communities. These changes would also reduce new clean energy projects — and jeopardize billions in rural investments in clean energy manufacturing.
6. It gives handouts to agribusiness and mega farms.
Leaders in Congress are using the budget reconciliation process to give big farms a $50 billion windfall. Add the heightened pressures and instability caused by the Trump administration’s erratic trade policy and more family farmers would lose their farms — while Big Ag consolidates more of the market.
In short, this bill would make it harder for rural people to meet their basic needs — all so the wealthy and corporations can avoid paying their fair share of taxes like the rest of us do.
Lawmakers have already heard from the giant corporations who helped write the bill. Now, they need to hear from the rest of us. It’s up to us to alert our communities and tell our lawmakers: Don’t sell rural America out to big corporations and the wealthy.
Michael Chameides is the Communications and Policy Director for the Rural Democracy Initiative. A longer version of this op-ed was originally published by Barn Raiser. This version was distributed for syndication by OtherWords.org.
Researchers say there's no silver bullet for mitigating the effects of heat stress on herds.
by Judith Ruiz-Branch Illinois News Connection
CHICAGO - A new study shows how extreme weather conditions negatively affect production yields on Midwest dairy farms, with a disproportionate impact on smaller farms.
Researchers at the University of Illinois studied milk production records from nine Midwest dairy farmers. Considering both temperature and humidity when measuring extreme heat, they found farms lose about 1% of milk yield annually because of heat stress, while smaller farms lose closer to 2%.
Marin Skidmore, study co-author, said when cows are in extreme heat, it can cause increased restlessness and risk of infection, and decreased appetite, which reduces milk yield and impacts bottom lines.
"To some extent, it's only 1.6%. But if you're really making every dollar from your paycheck count, because you're living in a time with high costs, then 1.6% of your paycheck being gone in a given year is meaningful," she said.
The study predicts extreme heat days to be much more frequent in years to come and milk yield losses to increase about 30% in the next 25 years.
The Midwest tends to have smaller dairy farms compared with other states, with herds ranging from 100 to 200 cows. Researchers say being able to track and compare daily milk yields across a large region with similar climates has never been done before. Skidmore said their findings suggest that larger herds seem to have some level of protection to extreme heat compared with smaller farms, which start to see impacts of heat stress at lower thresholds.
"And this is additionally concerning in the context that we're studying because we've seen a lot of dairy farm exits over the last decade or two, and many of those are small farms," she added.
While researchers say there's no silver bullet for mitigating the effects of heat stress on herds, recommendations include adjusting feeding and calving timing, and using sprinklers and improved ventilation systems.
Skidmore emphasized the need for additional support for small farms since capital costs can be particularly constraining.
"Having the access to enough capital to make these really big investments is difficult, and grants or loans to help small farms adopt some of these management technologies could be one avenue to help small farms cope with heat stress and keep them competitive," she continued.
Skidmore said more research is also needed to explore other options to best manage extreme heat on dairy farms.
When Steve Stierwalt studied agriculture at the University of Illinois in the 1970s, soil health wasn’t commonly taught or discussed. Faculty often told their young farming students to put all their faith in commercial fertilizers.
But over his 40 years as a corn and soybean farmer in Champaign County, Stierwalt said soil erosion, which can cause fertilizer and manure runoff to end up in nearby rivers and streams, has become an increasingly serious problem.
“When we plowed, we plowed pretty much everything,” except for a row near the fence line, Stierwalt said. “The grass near the fence row kept getting taller, it seemed to me. I came to understand that it wasn’t the fence row getting taller, it was the soil in the fields that was getting shorter.”
In the early 2010s, Stierwalt started experimenting with cover crops, which can help hold soil in place and reduce runoff pollution.
“This valuable resource that we take for granted, we were letting it get away,” Stierwalt said. “We have some of the best soil in the world here, and we have to protect it.”
Six years ago, Illinois became the second state in the nation to offer subsidies to farmers for planting cover crops in the fall, an effort to reverse its status as one of the worst states for agriculture runoff. Demand for the Fall Cover for Spring Savings program — which offers a $5 per acre discount on the following year’s crop insurance premiums — has outpaced state funding every year since.
However, despite the program’s popularity and calls from environmentalists and farmers for its funding to increase, Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed a 31% funding cut.
Pritzker, a Democrat, recently proposed an overall $2 billion increase to next year’s state budget. But he also recommended cuts to several programs, including reducing the cover crop insurance credit budget from $960,000 to $660,000.
Pritzker’s office did not respond to a request for comment but the governor referenced program cuts in a recent address.
Photo: Jennifer Bamberg/Investigate Midwest
Kristopher Reynolds, Midwest Director for American Farmland Trust and a fifth generation farmer in Nokomis, is pictured at the Illinois State Capitol on March 12, 2025. He works with farmers and landowners on conservation cropping practices to meet the goals of Illinois’ Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.
“I have made difficult decisions — including to programs I have championed, which is hard for me,” Pritzker said during his State of the State and budget address in February.
Two state lawmakers introduced bills this legislative session to increase the program’s annual funding to $6.1 million. They say it's crucial to support the practice, which will benefit communities in Illinois and beyond.
It's an investment because you know you're doing right by the environment. You know you're doing right by your land, and long term, you're going to build your soil health, and that will impact your bottom line.
Ed Dubrick small pasture poultry farmer Cissna Park Illinois
The bills did not clear a recent committee deadline. However, lawmakers can still negotiate funding for the program as they continue to work to pass a budget by the end of May.
Illinois is one of the leading states for farm fertilizer runoff and one of the top contributors to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone, a barren area of around 4,500 square miles of coastal waters deadly to fish, shrimp and other marine life. It costs the region’s fishing and tourism industry millions annually.
Runoff from Illinois farms has only worsened, according to a 2023 state study. Between 2017 and 2021, average nitrate-nitrogen loads increased by 4.8%, and total phosphorus loads increased by 35%, compared to the 1980-1996 baseline.
Nutrient levels were highest between 2016 and 2020 before declining slightly. The improvement was attributed to regulatory permits on wastewater treatment plants, which also pollute waterways.
However, nitrate levels remain well above the state’s reduction goals.
Less than 6% of Illinois farmland uses cover crops
The soil in Illinois is famously fertile and much of the land is flat. The soil isn’t highly erodible like soil on a slope or a hill might be. But when fields are left bare after harvest, the soil can easily blow away in the wind or wash away in storms, depositing fertilizers and chemicals into waterways.
Cover crops, which include winter wheat, crimson clover, cereal rye, oats or radish, are planted after harvest and before winter. The crops can reduce soil erosion, break up compacted soil, provide a habitat for beneficial insects and wildlife, and prevent latent fertilizer from leaching into rivers and streams.
Since the Fall Cover for Spring Savings program began in 2019, the Illinois Department of Agriculture has received more applications than the program can fund.
This year, the program sold out in two hours.
Under current funding levels, only 200,000 acres are available, which advocates say is too small.
“At the rate conservation is being invested in right now for agriculture, it would take 200 years to hit the goals under the Nutrient Reduction Strategy. And that’s assuming … there would be new adopters,” said Eliot Clay, executive director of the statewide Association of Soil and Water Conservation District.
The Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS) is a statewide, multi-agency effort to reduce the amount of nutrients in Illinois waterways and the Gulf of Mexico. The policy working group’s latest report, produced in 2023, found that to meet just half of its goals of reducing runoff, nearly all of Illinois’ corn and soybean farmers would need to adopt cover crops.
“It doesn’t mean the state won’t meet the goal,” a spokesperson for the NLRS team at University of Illinois Extension said in an emailed statement to Investigate Midwest. “There is quite a bit of variability of riverine nutrient loads at watershed scales for nitrogen and phosphorus.”
However, the spokesperson added that more research, data acquisition, and planning are needed at watershed scales.
Out of the state’s 26.3 million acres of farmland, an estimated 3% to 6% grew cover crops in 2022, according to USDA data.
Kristopher Reynolds, Midwest director for American Farmland Trust and a fifth-generation farmer in Nokomis, said Illinois needs to see cover crop adoption of at least 15% and more state and federal incentives are needed.
The Gulf Hypoxia Task Force, a federally funded program through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has provided additional funding to supplement the cover crop program. However, the Trump administration’s freeze of some federal grants might put those funds at risk.
Earlier this year, the Illinois Department of Agriculture was awarded a $25 million grant from the EPA to support conservation practices for the next three years.
“We don't know the status (of the grant),” said Jerry Costello II, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, while speaking to the House Appropriations Committee on March 12. “Last that we've heard, things looked good. But that's been a while."
“We've got two and a half months left in this process in Illinois, right?” added Costello, citing the time the state has to finalize its 2026 budget, which begins in July 2025. “Two and a half months plus or minus. So surely we'll have some guidance … we certainly hope so.”
Because of the sheer scale of the agriculture industry, government regulations requiring conservation practices can be difficult to carry out, said Clay, the executive director of the Soil and Water Conservation District.
Farmland covers 75% of the entire state of Illinois, and even if all farmers employed precision sensors to track runoff points, it would cost billions, Clay said.
There would also need to be an army of workers to track and enforce regulations.
However, “industry self-regulating usually doesn't work, and it hasn't worked in ag, because that's basically what they've been doing for the most part,” Clay said. What’s needed, he added, is more public-private partnerships.
Stierwalt, the farmer in Champaign County, helped develop STAR, or Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources, which gives farmers a five-star score based on their conservation practices.
The state adopted the framework in 2023 to support the state's nutrient loss reduction goals.
Stierwalt said the ultimate goal is to get companies to purchase agricultural commodities based on the rating system.
If the public and industries that rely on agricultural goods for ethanol or food products want sustainably raised crops, then the farmers will grow them, he said.
Cover crop barriers include both cost and culture
Cover crops have long-term benefits but can be expensive and require extra work. Crop yields may even decrease during the first few years.
Cover crops cost roughly $35 to $40 an acre, and farmers don’t make a direct profit from it. The crops are planted in the fall and aren’t harvested. Instead, as the plants die and decompose, they provide nutrients back into the soil for the new commodity crop. Some farmers terminate the crops with chemical herbicides.
But the $5 an acre from the Fall Cover for Spring Savings program acts as an incentive for doing the right thing, which will pay off later, said Ed Dubrick, a small pasture poultry farmer in Cissna Park who also farms vegetables with his wife.
“It's an investment because you know you're doing right by the environment,” Dubrick said. “You know you're doing right by your land, and long term, you're going to build your soil health, and that will impact your bottom line.”
There are also cultural barriers to planting cover crops. Row crop farmers often pride themselves on tidy, neat rows, and cover cropping and no-till can leave fields looking messy.
Walter Lynn, a retired certified public accountant and farmer in Springfield, said farmers sometimes only cover crop fields that are out of sight from their neighbors or the road because they’re afraid they’ll be judged.
At a recent soil health conference in Omaha, Lynn said he met a farmer who believes he can’t openly discuss his practices with his equipment dealer, saying, “There's a vulnerability that ag doesn't deal well with.” But at the conference, Lynn said the farmer found a welcoming atmosphere: “It's so good to come to this space at this meeting … I feel like I'm a member of the cover crop witness protection.”
Illinois’ top high school cheer teams return to Grossinger Motors Arena for the IHSA Competitive Cheer State Finals. After adv...
On This Day
Discover the headlines published on each of these days from our news and sports coverage from Champaign‑Urbana and the wider community. From local news and sports to community events, politics, and opinion pieces, The Sentinel archives capture the stories that shaped life in Champaign County year after year.
Polk Auction Company will host a two-day auction March 20-21 at 1269 CR 3200 N, Rantoul, Illinois. Items from the estate of Albert Warner will be sold at four separate locations. A sale preview will be held March 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Online bidding will be available at Polkauctionlive.com. A buyer's premium applies for farm implements and all other items for both online and in-person purchases. See flyer for details or contact Polk Auction Company at (877) 915-4440.
by Tom O'Connor & Maggie Dougherty
