INTRODUCTION
A) Executive Summary
The Illinois Food System Roadmap is an initiative designed to strengthen the state’s food system through community-informed planning and coordinated action. The purpose of this Phase I report is to inform stakeholders — including policymakers, community organizations, farmers, food businesses, advocates, researchers, and the general public — about the intent of the Roadmap, the process undertaken so far, and the preliminary findings that have emerged from this foundational phase.
Phase I has focused on building a shared understanding of the food system’s current conditions, engaging a broad range of stakeholders through collaborative workshops, surveys, and individual meetings to forge a shared vision and values for the Roadmap, and on identifying existing assets and priority areas for transformation by region. These workshops and surveys were designed to ensure that diverse voices, especially those of frontline communities, were centered in the process.
The preliminary findings included in this report highlight key themes and challenges across the Illinois food system. Many of the challenges are already well-known, such as the need for land access, market access, access to capital, and the need for animal processing facilities and aggregation centers. Some of these challenges are already being addressed in parts of the state, while others are not.
Among the needs expressed most often by workshop participants across regions are: communication, collaboration, and resource sharing among food system stakeholders; education for consumers, policy makers, and farmers; financial and technical assistance for farmers and producers; access to funding for infrastructural improvements; and fair and safe working conditions in the food system.
These findings will inform the development of actionable strategies in Phase II, with a strong emphasis on cross-sector collaboration.
By publishing this report, the Task Force aims to keep the public and stakeholders engaged and informed. We invite continued input and participation as the Roadmap process evolves, with the shared goal of transforming Illinois’ food system into one that makes Illinois more food secure and that works better for everyone — from producers to eaters.
B) The Illinois Food System Roadmap
Why a New Roadmap? Illinois is the United States’ fifth largest agricultural producer, yet we produce less than 5% of the food we consume. While this fact was known as far back as 15 years ago, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that — confronted with empty supermarket shelves due to supply chain disruptions — we recognized the severe degree to which ours is a food insecure state. Moreover, the pandemic laid bare inequities in our food system that underlie poor — and sometimes devastating — health outcomes for the state’s BIPOC populations. Illinois’ food system stakeholders took stock of how far we were from a robust food system that supports local farmers, builds our local economy, safeguards Illinois’ land, water and air, and improves the health and well-being of all Illinois residents. And, while a number of innovative projects, programs, and studies have been initiated in the past 10-15 years, these efforts are often siloed and unknown to other stakeholders. The Illinois Food System Roadmap will serve as a collective and collaborative effort to highlight ongoing initiatives and identify persistent needs in addressing food insecurity and inequity within Illinois’ food system.
The Illinois Food System Roadmap is not the first of its kind in Illinois. In 2013, the Vision for Illinois Agriculture Summit held at the University of Illinois, Chicago laid out a 10-year vision for the state’s agriculture in which Illinois would compete – and win – in the global commodity marketplace. Notably, local food systems to build food security in Illinois was not a meaningful part of that 2013 vision for the state’s agriculture.
The 2013 Summit seeded the idea in 2014 to create a strategic plan for Illinois food and agriculture. The result was the publication in 2015 of FARM Illinois (Food and Agriculture Roadmap for Illinois), a strategic plan developed by the FARM Illinois Leadership Council chaired by Dr. Robert Easter, president emeritus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and comprised of “39 distinguished leaders with renowned experience in agriculture, international markets, global food security, sustainability, community development, and related issues” (p. 15). With a primary focus on global food security, and projecting that the demand for “food produced halfway across the world will remain strong” (p. 18), FARM Illinois lays out an argument and strategies for Illinois to become both a leader in the production and export of agricultural products to feed a growing world population and, with Chicago as a global city, an international hub for agriculture innovation (p. 40). Again, increasing the production of food for Illinoisans to consume appears in the 2015 FARM Illinois plan as a relatively minor goal compared to the larger goal of global leadership.
The Illinois Food System Roadmap that we envision here aims to take us forward into the next 10 to 15 years. Unlike FARM Illinois, the Illinois Food System Roadmap aims to carve out a central place in the Illinois agricultural landscape for food producers and the people and components of the food system that feed Illinoisans. Also, unlike the top-down approach of its predecessor, the Illinois Food System Roadmap is a grassroots effort, bringing together the collective voices and energies of stakeholders engaged in Illinois food policy, production, aggregation, distribution, and consumption. Finally, rather than providing high-level data and diagnoses of challenges and strategies, the Illinois Food System Roadmap aims to identify specific assets and needs by region, efforts to be supported and sustained, models to be replicated, and new investments to be generated. Equipped with the Roadmap, farmers, business entrepreneurs, funders, investors, nonprofit organizations, policymakers, and state agencies will be better able to make strategic decisions about the resource allocations and targeted investments necessary to building a more healthy, equitable, and resilient food system.
With generous support from the Illinois Department of Human Services, Experimental Station, an Illinois nonprofit based in Chicago, convened a Task Force to establish and carry out the process to create the Illinois Food System Roadmap. Among the Task Force’s founding members are leaders of eight organizations representing farmers and farmers markets (Down At The Farms, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Specialty Growers Association, Illinois Farmers Market Association, Think Regeneration), programs providing food access for low-income populations (Experimental Station, Seven Generations Ahead), and policy advocates (Chicago Food Policy Action Council, Illinois Stewardship Alliance). Experimental Station engaged Grant Kessler as Project Manager.
In Phase I of the Illinois Food System Roadmap process, the Task Force was tasked with engaging stakeholders in the Illinois food system in the process, consolidating information and feedback received from stakeholder participants, and reporting back on its preliminary findings.
C) The Goal of this Report
The goal of this report is to inform stakeholders and the general public about the purpose and long-term vision behind the Illinois Food System Roadmap: to create a diverse, sustainable, and resilient food system that benefits all Illinoisans. It aims to share the process undertaken during Phase I of the Roadmap’s development, highlighting the collaborative efforts and community engagement involved. Additionally, the report provides preliminary findings that offer insight into the current state of Illinois’ food system, thus setting the foundation for future stages of the Roadmap’s development.
D) Overview of the Listening Session and Survey Process
Phase I of the Roadmap process aimed to introduce and generate stakeholder buy-in for an Illinois Food System Roadmap, develop collective agreement on the Roadmap’s vision and values, evaluate the current state of Illinois’ food system through stakeholder input, identify strategies and actionable tactics to build an Illinois food system rooted in the Roadmap vision, and gather existing reports and research from the past 10 years.
Launched on January 27, 2025, at the “Everything Local” conference held in Springfield, Illinois, the Roadmap process sought over the following five months to bring as many stakeholders to the table as possible. Through six regional in-person and four virtual workshops, as well as online surveys, 319 farmers, food system advocates, non-profit organizations, funders, food business entrepreneurs, and representatives from the health, finance, and government sectors provided their insights and input.
In addition to the day-long meeting held during the Springfield “Everything Local” conference, regional in-person workshops took place in Rockford (Rockford City Market), Chicago (Chicago Food Policy Action Council Summit), Bloomington (Epiphany Farms), and Carbondale (Blue Sky Vineyard). Led by Task Force members, the workshops lasted from 1.5 to 2 hours.
Among the participants in the in-person and virtual workshops,
Participants in the workshops were tasked with providing input into the Roadmap vision, values, strategies, and tactics and to share their knowledge of what is working in the food system in their region, what is missing, and what solutions they can suggest. Participants were also asked
Among the participants in the in-person and virtual workshops,
to share their knowledge of existing reports and research undertaken in the past decade to bring to light the work that has already been done to identify strengths and weaknesses in the local food system and to assess progress made. Depending on the technical capabilities of the locations, responses were gathered via paper forms, Slido technology, Zoom whiteboards, and Google online surveys. Responses received from the various workshops informed subsequent iterations of the Roadmap vision, values, strategies, and tactics.