IFB president focuses on impactful advocacy

CHICAGO — As president of Illinois Farm Bureau, Philip Nelson aims to provide impactful advocacy for farmers in the state.

“Being on the sidelines is not an option — you have to be involved, able to tell your story and speak up,” said Nelson, who operates a grain and livestock farm near Seneca in northeastern Illinois with his wife, Carmen, and family, Kendall, Rachel and Kyle.

“We have to show the value of membership and advocacy is a big part of it,” he said during a presentation at The Chicago Farmers meeting.

Nelson noted the importance of working with elected officials at both the state and federal levels.

“We have to restore our credibility in Springfield and Washington, D.C. I think that has slipped over the last few years,” he said.

Cultivating relationships takes some time.

“You don’t just turn a light switch on,” said Nelson, who was elected president in December at the IFB annual meeting.

Repairing relationships with the American Farm Bureau Federation is also a focus for Nelson.

“IFB was kicked out of AFBF a year and a half ago because of the way a situation was handled with the associate member dues,” he said. “But the national umbrella is important because you can only do so many things as a state organization.”

Nelson has met twice with Zippy Duvall, the AFBF president.

“We haven’t got it solved yet, but I think we have figured out some of the pathway forward,” Nelson said. “I am hoping we are going to get this behind us sooner rather than later.”

The agricultural industry goes through peaks and valleys.

“I think Illinois farmers are resilient,” Nelson said. “I watched in the ‘80s when I was a kid, some very good farming operations go out of business, when the value of farmland went from $3,000 to $1,000 per acre and it was ugly.”

That’s why it is important for farmers to know their breakevens.

“To weather these peaks and valleys you have to control your balance sheet,” the fourth-generation farmer said. “Working capital is challenging right now, but we will get through it and hopefully be stronger because of it.”

Nelson was a member of the AFBF trade advisory committee for three years.

“We went to the WTO talks in Geneva, Switzerland, to try to level the playing field,” he said. “Whether you agree or disagree with what the president is doing, he is trying to level that playing field with retaliatory tariffs.”

This may be painful for farmers in the short term, Nelson said.

“But when you look at the trade playing field, we are not on the same page as a lot of countries,” he said. “That is what he is trying to do and hopefully this will turn shortly, to increase the demand for the products we raise.”

On the state level, Nelson said, one of the concerns is the development of data centers.

“There are people that love them and people that have concerns about them,” he noted.

Several weeks ago, the IFB president wrote a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker expressing his concerns about the amount of electricity and water these facilities use, as well as the farmland that is removed from production with the new buildings.

“Five years ago, we exported 40% of our electricity in this state,” Nelson said. “With the closure of two coal-fired plants and the scaling back of two nuclear plants, today we import 40% of our electricity.”

This 80% change in five years is the reason that the farm leader is worried going forward.

“We’re going into the open market and buying that electricity and it will probably be more expensive than what you can make it for, so that is going to impact everybody in the state,” he said.

Illinois residents should take a close look at their electric bill. It includes an electricity charge and a delivery charge.

“In most cases, now you are paying a lot more for delivery than the electricity and that is only going to continue,” Nelson said.

At the recent IFB Young Leader Conference, the president spoke to about 500 attendees.

“They are not the future — they are the present and the future,” he stressed. “A lot of us are getting older, so we must have these young people to take leadership roles if this organization is going to flourish in the future.”

Nelson, who also served as the IFB president from 2003 to 2013, choose to compete for the office again for several reasons, including the young farmers.

“One of the reasons I came back is, I want to have an organization that our sons and daughters are proud of,” he said.

Some farmers have the opportunity to farm with their children.

“When you come home from college, you have big ideas that you want to implement,” Nelson said. “When I came back, that is when we started minimum-till and no-till and my dad thought that was the dumbest thing to see all that trash.”

However, a couple years into it, Nelson said, his dad saw the improvements with better soil tilth.

“We work all our lives to build assets up, but you hope you do things right so you can pass it to the next generation,” he said.