Read promotes global soy education

PUTNAM, Ill. — Mark Read has been involved in his community in a variety of roles over the years, and after retiring from farming, he was able to expand his volunteer work to well beyond north-central Illinois.

Read, a fourth-generation farmer, grew up on a farm that has been in his family for 150 years.

He served on the boards for the Marshall-Putnam Soil and Water Conservation District, Putnam County Board of Review and the Henry-Senachwine Unit 5 School District. He also served on the farm advisory committee for Congressman Darin LaHood.

He’s a member of the Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau, Illinois Soybean Association and Illinois Corn Growers Association.

He farmed with his brother, Charles, until 2020.

“I farmed about 2,500 acres with my brother for several years. He had just retired and I retired. We raised corn and soybeans and we were mainly all strip-till and no-till at the time. We’re still that now,” Read said.

After he and his brother retired, he was able to find someone to farm the ground with the same approach to managing the soil.

“I went a few miles to get the person who I wanted to farm it like we’ve been doing it and to improve it. We’re now growing cover crops. He signed up for an Illinois cover crop program and we’ll have cover crops on everything next year,” Read said.

Giving Back

After his retirement from farming, Read felt he “had time to give something back.”

“I was approached about running for the Illinois Soybean Association board and took a partial term first and then another six years. I will go off the board this July,” he said.

Joining ISA as a board member representing Marshall, Putnam, Tazewell, Peoria and Knox counties opened up a whole new world for Read — literally.

He’s a representative for ISA’s Soy Innovation Center, the U.S. Soybean Export Council and the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health.

Read was elected chair of USSEC’s Soy Excellence Center last year. The program is designed to meet local workforce development needs around the world.

It facilitates employee training and continuing education activities that build the knowledge and skills to help employees overcome key challenges and operations hurdles in food and business operations.

Regional hubs are located in Asia, India, Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

“When the first tariffs were put on in 2019, we lost a lot of business with China, and so part of that there was a grant written by the USSEC to start some educational training in countries other than China,” Read said of the start of the Soy Excellence Center.

“We’ve educated over 25,000 people in the program. It’s started in 2019 in Egypt. So, I’ve been to Egypt like four times.”

His travels on behalf of soybean farmers have filled his passport.

“I’ve been to a lot of countries in South America and Latin America. We’ve got really good customers in Colombia and Venezuela,” he said.

“We actually increased our soybean sales about 30% last year with the exception of China, but that didn’t make up a China. They take almost half the world’s soybeans.”

Generational

Promoting U.S. commodities to international markets has spanned two generations for the family.

“My dad was in an organization which he started with two or three people where they were selling hogs to countries in Africa and shipping them over there on an airplane. So, I’ve always had kind of that international exposure,” Read said.

His first experience with international agriculture was during a summer trip with the University of Illinois where he majored in ag economics.

“It was a Big Ten trip that Purdue sponsored. It was interesting. We flew to places like Costa Rica where they were raising cassava. We also went to Venezuela and Panama. So, I was kind of interested in international agriculture, how it all worked and how it benefited us,” he said.

“It’s interesting to see where our end products end up, what it’s doing, how you can improve it. The crude protein is one thing that sometimes we’re not quite as high on as Brazil, but there’s much more than crude protein. Hogs care about other things, not just crude protein. It’s kind of learning how to present that, how to sell it and to get in touch with the right people.”

Membership Value

Through his work and serving on the ISA board, Read has seen the value that ISA and ICGA provides for Illinois farmers.

“I’m a member of both. It’s remarkable how much they add to the value of our crop. That little we pay goes a long way, and I was one that didn’t really know where my money was going before I got on. I didn’t appreciate all the work that was being done before that, especially on the export side. About 60% of our soybeans are exported from Illinois,” he said.

“Now, that might be a little bit less when Marquis and Incobrasa expand. Incobrasa at Gilman are really expanding and they’re going to take beans from about 80 miles away.”

Community Involvement

Read is a strong believer in being involved in communities.

“It’s important to be involved in the community that you live in and make it better, especially because it’s harder now,” Read said.

“It seems like we’ve got more free and reduced lunch and all this. We have poor people right where we live. Why?

“Then a lot of the kids that go to college and the end up in other places. They don’t come back here unless they’re going to farm. We’ve got to have a lot of farm leaders in the community.”