From IFCA intern to interim president

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association’s interim president got his start with the organization as an intern collecting biomass samples in cover crop fields, as well as conducting nitrogen rate trials and anhydrous safety training.

Jason Solberg began as IFCA interim president Jan. 1 after the group’s president, Kevin Johnson, moved on to the Illinois Soybean Association as government relations and strategy director.

Johnson served as interim president and then president since 2021 after Jean Payne’s retirement. He had been with IFCA since 2013.

Solberg’s start at IFCA coincided with the development and rollout of the state’s Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy that aims at reducing the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering waterways, placing him in a unique position that he wouldn’t have expected years prior.

How did you become involved with IFCA?

Solberg: I’ve been with IFCA for just over 12 years. I’m originally from Bloomington, which is where our office is located. I went to Bloomington High School and graduated from Illinois State University.

I transitioned into a role through an internship with IFCA right out of college. I started working with Dan Schaefer on staff who, at the time, had been recently hired to be the director of nutrient stewardship.

I spent several years working with Dan out in the field. I then transitioned into the office and started taking on more regulatory training program and communication aspects and kind of had a hybrid role, working with Dan out in the field, and became IFCA director of programs and compliance.

Was it your environmental health major and interest in that field that led to you to this career?

Solberg: With my internship with Dan, I was an unpaid intern pulling soil samples initially, and tracking nitrates, and so it was interesting to me because with an environmental health background and the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy coming out, they just kind of married together.

I never would have guessed at that time the journey that I would then go on and learning so much about the industry, learning so much about agriculture, that I just feel very lucky to have found myself on that path that I ended up taking, because I’ve just tremendously enjoyed my job, and it’s very easy to work for this membership.

From your experience as an intern to your current role, what are among the important roles that you’ve seen that IFCA provides to the industry?

Solberg: I didn’t even have an agricultural background. I didn’t study ag in college. I was an environmental health major, and that was associated loosely with some of the stuff that I was working on with Dan when I started interning, but I have always loved working for this association.

You learn very early how hard this industry works and how important it is for the state. And so, I’ve always felt very blessed and honored to be working for IFCA.

I’ve always been fortunate that my in role with IFCA I’ve kind of had my fingers in everything. I haven’t necessarily been the top expert on any one particular subject with all the different programs, but the trainings, the projects, the communications, everything that we offer to the membership that I’ve been involved with.

Also, fighting for the membership on every different front, whether it’s legislatively, whether it’s through programs, offering new trainings, any way that we can create value for the membership and represent the membership is always the forefront of our mind. It’s always a very easy place to work for with how great our membership is.

Advocating for the industry and monitoring legislation is among the roles of the organization. How are you following up IFCA’s most recent success — passage of Senate Bill 783 that allows current valid pesticide license holders to renew their licenses through continuing education credits for three-year recertifications rather than annually?

Solberg: It’s early in the legislative session right now. I think about 2,000 to 3,000 bills will be introduced here and coming week or two. We introduced legislation this past year that got passed, Senate Bill 783, and we’re really happy about that.

Typically, we are on the other side legislatively, we’re more tracking bills that could negatively impact the industry, and there will be things every year that are introduced that we’ll need to have conversations about and determine whether or not they make sense.

It’s early in the session. We’re already starting to have conversations with people in Springfield, but the process is kind of playing out right now. Here in the coming weeks, we’ll have a better idea of what’s being introduced this year and what will we be focusing on.

What is the process in naming the new IFCA president?

Solberg: The job has been posted the last month, month and a half, and that will close Jan. 23. The executive committee and the board will go through the applications, start interviews, and I anticipate here in the next month or two that they will have made a decision on who will be the permanent president moving forward.

Here on Jan. 20, the first day of the three-day event, how is this year’s annual IFCA convention going?

Solberg: We’re having a great time here at the convention. It’s always a great time to get people from every corner of the industry in one location.

That’s always the greatest value of the convention is if you have any question, there’s going to be someone here that can answer that question, you can expand your network. It’s just been a great week.