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Public Act 92-0110
HB3085 Enrolled LRB9203877TAtm
AN ACT concerning agriculture.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Sustainable Agriculture Act is amended by
changing Sections 2 and 5 as follows:
(505 ILCS 135/2) (from Ch. 5, par. 2652)
Sec. 2. Findings. It is the intent of this Act to
provide for funding of the developmental research program
that serves production agriculture in Illinois. Illinois is
blessed with some of the richest agricultural soils and the
most favorable agricultural climate of any land area in the
world of similar size. An economically competitive
production agriculture in Illinois is essential to sustaining
Illinois farmers plus a vast infrastructure of the State's
input, processing, distribution and marketing industries and
financial institutions and provides the economic base for
many rural communities and municipalities.
Production agriculture in Illinois faces rapidly growing
competition for international markets, for which the basis of
competition is cost of production. In order to compete
effectively, agricultural producers in Illinois must be the
early and most effective adapters of new
productivity-enhancing, cost-cutting and quality-improving
technology.
In addition, in order to sustain a high level of
agricultural production into the twenty-first century and
beyond, it is critical to determine the optimum methods for
production agriculture which result in the best return for
the farm and best preserves the environment and the farmland
of Illinois.
The Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station's Office of
Research and research farm system are is essential to
conducting research that tests and compares promising new
agricultural practices and products, selecting those that are
most appropriate for Illinois, tailoring them to the specific
agricultural conditions of Illinois and generating
information that helps Illinois farmers assemble them into
effective farming systems, thus achieving competitive
advantages for Illinois.
Tremendous numbers of new practices and products are
becoming available because of increased public and private
research around the world, and this rate of development will
increase in the future, requiring a much stronger and more
sophisticated adaptive research program. Research conducted
in the research farm system permits Illinois to capture the
economic benefits of worldwide agricultural research and
product development.
The State's investment in utilization and marketing
research will have little benefit for the present and future
of Illinois unless Illinois farmers are the low-cost
producers of the raw materials for new food and non-food
uses, use production methods which preserve the farmland and
guarantee future productivity, and employ some of the
utilization and marketing technologies which can be
implemented on Illinois farms as efficient production
practices.
(Source: P.A. 86-1022.)
(505 ILCS 135/5) (from Ch. 5, par. 2655)
Sec. 5. There is hereby created the Sustainable
Agriculture Committee which shall consist of 7 members as
follows: one member representing and appointed by the
Governor; one member representing and appointed by the Board
of Higher Education; one member representing and appointed by
the Department of Agriculture; and 4 members appointed by the
Department of Agriculture who are farmers actively involved
in production agriculture. Members of the Committee shall be
appointed for a term of 5 years.
It is the duty of the Committee to seek sources of
funding for projects described in Section 4. These sources
may be private or public, or federal, State, or local, or
designated for agricultural, environmental, or other related
purposes. The Committee shall act in an advisory capacity to
the Department of Agriculture in program administration and
funding recommendations.
The Department of Agriculture may accept funds from any
public or private source for the purposes specified in
Section 3. Funds received shall be deposited into the State
treasury into a State trust fund to be held by the Treasurer
as ex-officio custodian and subject to the Comptroller --
Treasurer, voucher -- warrant system. Such funds shall be
used by the Department only for the purposes specified in
Section 3.
(Source: P.A. 86-1022; 87-998.)
(505 ILCS 135/6 rep.) (from Ch. 5, par. 2656)
Section 10. The Sustainable Agriculture Act is amended
by repealing Section 6.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.
Passed in the General Assembly May 03, 2001.
Approved July 20, 2001.
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