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Farmers stuck in the middle of a congressional battle and pay what you can.

The restaurant that succeeding with a rare business plan in the city's.

It is the Thanksgiving weekend, a time we think of family shopping and food.

And the food on your table was produced by farmers on the almost 2 million farms that dot the nation.

Farmers depend on the farm bill to provide a safety net and price stabilization for their income.

It's a five year agreement t give farmers time to plan ahead.

But reaching an agreement has been difficult.

Last year, Congress agreed to a one yea extension of the 2018 farm bill, but that ran out in September and no bill was approved to replace it.

Now, it appears the farm bill will remain in limbo until Republicans take control of both houses of Congress in January.

An extension of the current bill might be approved during the current lame duck session of Congress.

So we sat down with the Western Illinois district director of the Illinois Farm Bureau to talk about agriculture.

Jeff Kirwan is also a Merce County corn and soybean farmer.

So the Democrats issued a farm bill.

Debbie Stabenow, the, chairman or chairwoman from Michigan, $1.5 trillion farm bill proposal.

Let's talk about that real quickly.

One is pretty late to the game, very late to the game.

And it was received and and too little, too late.

Kind of a conversation, I think is what you know, they're resting on with that.

And so I would say more so more likely now is a one year extension.

Exactly.

Well, and then the Republicans in the House had issued something back in May with some real deep slashes, particularly in Snap programs, which is the supplemental nutrition program that helps families.

And I want to talk about all those things.

You saw Debbie Stabenow or the Democrats plan, what is it that you like an what is it that you don't like?

So I think, the house version had a bigger increase in our, what we call reference prices.

And we do want to talk about that part of our safety net, part of that whole, indexing our, you know, our crops inflation has affected us in agriculture as well.

And so keeping up, I guess, more current with commodity pricing and structur in the farm bill was important.

The Senate version, her version had a 5% increase in it.

So, that, you know, we'd like to we would prefer to see a little bit more, closer to the house version.

There was a willingness in the, in the Democratic, drop from Stabenow office in using some of the CTC funding to to pay for some of this.

That's been one of the other, you know, big common.

How are we paying for the farm bill?

And so there was a lot of discussio around the Commodity Credit Corp using some of the dedicated funding for that to actually help pay for some of the the asks in the farm bill, and maybe I should back up a bit, because when it comes to the farm bill, it's usually a five year plan.

Yep.

Tell me why the farm bill is s important to farmers certainty.

I mean, it's we we run in a in an environment where we don't know what the when we look at the weather, we've had the last three, 4 or 5 years of dry periods and super wet periods, 2019 sticks in my mind.

If you remember the floods, I represent some area in Illinois and and Henry County was devastated with flooding and didn't get crops in without a safety net built around our farm bill that could have ended farmers careers.

I mean, you cannot invest the kind of money that we invest in agriculture in our farms and not have some way to offset that cost.

I mean, it would just be devastating.

So the certainty, the safety, it gives us, you know, from a community and, and supporting our local communities.

I mean, we spend our dollars in our local communities.

And so making a, a robust agricultural, economy is super critical.

And that's what the farm bill does.

It's the backsto to give us certainty and ability to continue to farm.

And that's the reason why it's a five year farm.

It gives you a chance to plan ahead as you well know, the last five year farm bill was 2018, 2018, and we kick the can down the road for a year.

So we had a one year extension of basically an extension of the 28 farm bill and all that was in that.

Yep.

And that might be extended again, at least into the new year.

Looks very likely.

What I mean that you didn't have that certainty of five years.

What has that done?

Has it really had that big of an impact?

It does because you can't.

I mean, one of the big I won't say problems, but one of the big concerns with the farm Bill of 2018 I mean, you like to get back in.

We talk about the reference prices and the differences of the bills.

But those reference prices were back in 2018 and we all know wha our costs have done over there.

We know what the commodity markets have done since then.

So it's getting current and getting something.

The farm bill does a very good job of kind of looking forward and developing metrics in it to keep current with what inflation's done and what our commodity prices are done.

So it that certainty and the one year extensions just don't giv us that certainty and are always at risk.

And we're talking politics here too.

I mean we were discussing I mean in the history of the farm bill, they would always be passed on time.

They would get bipartisan approval.

But the big problem was that it was an urban, rural thing that urban lawmakers would fight against it more than rural, because they wanted to protect farmers farm interests and provide that safety net.

Urban lawmakers said, well, farmer don't need that big of a safety net or whatever the argument would be.

It has now turned into very much a Republican Democrat thing.

Yeah.

I think, the Partizanship is still, I'd like to thank everybody champions around food security and what that means for the country.

So I think yes, it's become a little bit partizan, but I, I even look to our own situation.

We worked with Congressman Sorensen, in the House, ag Democrat and Democrat in the House Committee, and we conveyed all of our concerns about a farm bill and that.

And so when it came tim to, you know, vote on the House version of the farm bill, which was Republican, he supported it.

So I think there's a sign that bipartisanship still exists.

And doing it, it's doing what's right for the farmers, what's doing right for the people that use the nutrition programs.

It's just, yeah, it's not perfect.

I don't think, you know, we've always said either side, there's things that they like and there's things that they don't like.

We just need to continue to work and advocate.

But we as an organization, Farm Bureau, are always advocating for bipartisanship when we make decisions like this.

And let's find the common ground and then work forward.

And I think, you know, that was a great example of us talking about our concerns, listening and then actually acting on it.

And when it comes to the farm bill, 80% of it roughly goes toward supplemental nutrition programs.

20% slice going basically to farm.

That's something that's kind of eye opening.

And that's why Republicans like to see a greater slice in that 80%, and protect that 20% or perhaps grow it.

That's where, the politics really comes in.

But there's also been a big cry over the last few farm bills by Republicans to separate the two.

The Farm Bureau isn't really in favor of that.

No, we're not, and I think it's basically the the the the enormity of the budget.

We would be we want to be relevant and we produce food.

And by separating that I don't think that makes sense.

I think it's it's we advocate for, you know, the food security, everything that we do on the farm and making sure that we sta together in this whole process.

I did want to talk about the reference pricing, because as you said, Democrats are proposing, 5% and that would be the, Senate.

Democrats in the House wanted 10 to 20% hike.

It really protects you from falling commodity prices.

That's the whole point of that.

And we have seen spike and yeah, we've seen, you know, troughs for, corn and soybeans over the last number of years.

Yeah.

I mean, right, I just look before we came into the corn, $4 and beans or $9.30 at the local elevator here.

So, I mean, and two years ago, it might have been $6.50.

So when you look at the swings and the farm bill does a great job of of and reference prices, being part of that does a great job of kind of taking the highs and lows out and getting you somewhere where you can plant in that.

And so, it's important that we maintain, I guess, an inflationary effect on what's going on on the outside world.

On our reference prices enough.

And it's so much more than the farm bill that farmers have to look for for this coming year.

The Trump administration is coming in.

Yep.

And as you well know, Presiden elect Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to go after, Chinese imports and exports.

Right.

And China.

And if you remember, 27, 2018, where where there was a bit of a trade war and China reacted with and I'll say this again, a 25% up to 25% tariff on soybeans, beef, pork, wheat and sorghum back in 2018 to retaliate, farmers are caught in the middle of this.

Is that what your fear is?

I think that's a definite concern.

And we don't support tariffs.

But, especially because a they would drive up our cost tariffs, anything coming from China to here like fertilizers and things would increase.

But more importantly, th retaliatory side of the tariffs, what you just reference in soybeans and they're talking some pretty hefty rates.

So we don't want to impact how it impacts our commodities.

And and what we produce is not helpful for us.

And so that's why we wouldn't support that.

But it the tariffs, it's a huge concern.

We we're signed o with the University of Illinois.

We did a basicall a letter of support or a letter talking with our legislators about the effects.

And the Uvi has come up with anywhere from 20 to $150 an acre, potential loss in.

And then some of thes retaliatory tariffs that go hit, you know, our suggestion isn' so much tariffs as it is trade.

Let's get some trade agreements going.

Normalize some trade.

Let's, you know, both seek to get new trade agreements.

Let's seek to get, fair trade agreements and enforce trade agreements that we have.

So that's a better way of, you know, and I think that's the whole intent, but that's the key.

Well, and when you're putting tariffs on and you got to remember it's a world market.

Correct.

And one of the greatest growin markets of soybeans is Brazil.

as a farmer from New Windsor, you might be dealing with a farmer somewhere in Brazi in competition, competing.

Yes.

And and sometimes when you lose a market, when somebody goes to another market, they don't necessarily come back.

Right?

I mean, that's always the risk.

And we saw that you see the the increased interest that China has in the South American production.

And so I'd like to think if they're buyin all their goods, South America, that means that South Americ is not selling to somebody else.

So if we're in a too true trade issue, you know, we're getting markets, you know, maybe expanding market in other countries, but overall it really doesn't benefit anybody.

But I think, you know, we've got to get some trade going and get some get some other uses for our commodities.

Let's talk about it as a corn and soybean farmer.

And you were looking at commodity prices.

How did this year go?

I mean your planting season was really pretty good.

Yeah.

You had some really dry conditions in orde to get the crops in the ground.

And then you had some great rains.

And then came June and September and October.

Right.

We, you know, we had a great.

Well, actually, it was a lat start to spring, I would say we, we had gotten warm early and early part of April and then we got it real cold spell and real wet.

And so I would sa I was probably 1 to 2 weeks late from what I normally started to plant, but we were finished somewhere in the middle of May, and then we had some decent weather in May, June started to get dry in July.

You know, that's your July hit or miss storms.

And right, some areas got rain, some areas didn't.

But I did find it ironic.

I think it was like the third or fourth week of July.

We're in a dry period, and I called the elevator about setting up some, deliveries for corn.

And I said, well, you're going to have to have it done because the Mississippi's going into major flood stage next week and we're closing the elevator.

And I'm like, where did that come from?

And that was the Minnesota rains and all the northern tier of which we didn't necessarily we didn't get it.

They got it, they got in it out.

And that's how it affected our market.

That's how it affected, you know, getting our commodities down.

The thing.

So transportation is always important.

But so dams, locks and dams, there you go.

And and then then we do did get rains in in July, August and then it turned dry again.

But, then we got you know, right before harvest, it started really drying out and we were able to go.

And when we went, we didn't stop it.

We were tired because every day we'd get up.

And so what does that mean for yield?

I mean, when you have these bi fluctuations, you know, it was I was concerned and and looking at our crops this year, I, I thought, well they weren't going to it didn't look they looked okay.

Yeah.

Nothing spectacular, nothing spectacular.

We had good stands, which I always say a good stand mean usually a a above average crop.

And it ended up being a very good crop for us.

So it's kind of like a timing thing.

You can be dry, but if you get rains and the right weather at the right time, it does wonders to these crops.

And I would say the technology and the seeds and the way that we handle our crops has had great improvements over, you know, every year.

And so that's why you see some of the the better yields as well.

And that's the other thing that the public needs to know is that better yields farmers take pride in.

But that also drives dow commodity prices because supply of course.

Yeah.

So so what are you seeing for this coming year.

Because we did get the late rains.

Some places got inundated.

Yeah.

You were really worried about the, deeper soil moisture problem, which had a really started to dry up.

And that's always a concern.

Yeah.

Our soil profiles were, very dry.

You'll hear guys saying we were, you know, digging up a tile hole or doing some tiling or that, and you dig dow five feet and it's dry, powdery.

And so this is the time when we replenish the soil.

And it obviously we've started that process no with starting to get some rains.

But the ground is really hard.

And so some of our fall tillage and things that we do in the fall have right now is when we're finally getting started to do it.

But this would have been normall we'd be telling a month earlier, and we're getting tryin to catch all this up right now.

And so all of our fertilizer applications and tillage and the ground's finally getting moist enough.

I guess we could say that we can do that, but, it's for going into next year.

Right now, you know, you've got our input.

Prices have went up.

Inflation has affected them.

We know you know what it's done in the steel industry and thing, you know.

So equipment costs are still I so and you're looking at future commodity prices and you're not jumping up and down.

It's they're they're on the low end of the scale, obviously a good crop.

And one thing I think you see now it's tell tale of the new administration coming in is is our expor market is a really shining star.

Right now we are exporting more grain right now than what we have in the years past and even last year.

But I think that's in reaction to the administration and the fact that they're fearing the tariffs coming in.

So they're trying to get as much crop or much, grain shipped into the country.

So we see great exports into Mexico.

You see a fairly robust, loading of soybeans going out to, to China and other countries.

So I my concern is going into the, you know, the first half and the middle of next year, what's it going to look like?

What's what's really going to unfold.

And so a lot of uncertainty as it always is.

And hopefully we a farm bill would be helpful to know have some certainty on it.

But you know here we are one last area, the future of farming.

Of course I mean the Illinois Farm Bureau, I think of Western Illinois University trying to trai the next generation of farmers.

You guys have to be more business savvy.

You have to be environmentalists.

You have to be conservators of the soil.

You you have to have a little knowledge of, chemistry an all these other things as well.

And you're seeing an older and older, farm population.

Are we seeing more young people getting involved in the actual farm work of farming?

And also are we seeing more, more women?

Because that was the other area that the Farm Bureau has been very activ as women in agriculture.

Right.

I think, you know, I've got a nephew I've got two nephews, actually, that want to come back to the farm.

And that's important.

But you're right, we wear tons of hats from accountants to, you know, mechanics, everything, everything on.

And our pool is smaller, much more.

You look at the rural communities and that we just don't have the what we had 20 years ago.

So it's very concerning.

And the age of the farm is very concerning.

And the structure of the farms are concerning.

So, I think there' getting to be a lot of interest.

We do see a lot of younger people and a lot of young, you know, both men and women getting into agriculture.

From the, you know, supply sides and from the, the engineering sides of that.

But, I think there's starting to become an interest of, you know, trying to help young farmers and find young farmers to come back into it because somebody's got to do it, and you can look at it all you want and say, okay, but we have this many acres.

We got to get them covered.

Well, and I don't think autonomous and all of these other cool things that everybody's coming out with, it'll be a piece of the puzzle going forward.

But I don't think it's the total solution.

So we're going to, you know, we're going to learn to do things on bigger scales.

But I think at the end of the day, we still need young people and people involved in the actual production.

Our thanks to the Western Illinois district director of the Illinois Farm Bureau, Jeff Kirwan.

In a moment, we revisit an interview with the founder of a unique restaurant that lets you pay what you can for the food that you eat.

But first, let's check in with visit Quad Cities with a look at events in our area.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Start off with a dinner and a show or Magic and Burger Night on November 25th at Tab 22.

Next.

You can attend the Sugar Plum Bowl on November 26th at the Waterfront Convention Center.

On November 27th, you can attend an adult game night at the Mississippi River Distilling Company.

Or on November 27th, you can attend the Hip Ho Nutcracker at the Adler Theater.

Finally, check out the Quad City Saxophone Christmas for free on November 30th at the North Park Mall.

For more events like this, check out our events calendar at visit Quad cities.com.

Since it's the Thanksgiving weekend, we're talking about food.

And that leads us now to a restaurant in the cities that lets you pay what you can to get a nutritious meal.

It's called the NEST Cafe.

And we talked with its founder and executive director, Laura Mahn, in October, after she was honored as one of Rock Island's Citizens of the year.

NEST Caf has been around for a while now.

And what's interesting is pay what you can approach.

That's unusual.

What makes you think this is something that that's viable?

Yeah, well, I thought about this a long time ago.

Like, shouldn't there be places where everyone has access to good food?

And real food?

And so then I started doing some research, and there are restaurants all over the country, all over the world that have this structure this pay what you can structure.

And so I started visiting them and kind of seeing ooh I like this about this one, I like this about this one.

And then put it all together.

And here we are.

Well this really started from some, you know, a humble beginnings, so to speak.

I mean, you didn' have a structure to begin with.

We did not.

So we formed as a nonprofit in late 2019 and thought that we would open in maybe summer of 2020, and then this thing happened in 2020.

So we started doing monthly pop up meals around the community to kind of provide what people needed.

And we did that for two years and then finally opened in 2022.

And what you open is and I know you want to punctuate, this is a restaurant.

It is a wrestle.

I have to think of it as a restaurant.

It's our food and our place.

Oh, gosh.

No.

Everybody is welcome, of course.

And the food is is is fantastic.

It's fantastic.

Yeah.

We have a chef.

We have, paid staff that works in the kitchen.

We also use volunteers.

But it is it is really high quality food.

And it's jus that it's available to everyone.

Tell me about your chef.

Because so when you look at the menu, it's like, these are really creative.

Good.

And I visually attractive and tasty meals.

Yeah.

So chef Laura Harwell, she's been with us since mid-summer, so she's still pretty new.

She's phenomenal.

She's, you know, we threw a lot at her.

Like, you have to us what's what's locally available.

And that's that's a trick.

And you have to she has to create a new menu every single day.

So she's really creative.

She's really just hit the ground running and is doing a phenomenal job.

And the key to the word NEST is Nourish.

Everyone Sustainably Together.

And you want to underline that as well, because where is this food coming from that that is made into these dishes?

Yeah.

So we buy all of our meat, from a local farmer grateful graze in Cambridge, Illinois, because they don't put anything extra in their meat.

Their animals are grass fed.

And then we buy as much produc as we can from the Quad Cities farmers market in, Rock Island in the summer from all of their vendors because they're committed to organic, local grown, produce.

We grow a lot of our own produce in our nest garden.

That all shift in the winter where we have to, you know, hit the grocery stores a little bit more.

But we do try to buy as much organic, foods as possible, and we're still able to buy some from some local farmers.

And all of our meat still all year long comes from grateful grace.

What has been the reception?

I mean, among Quad City diners, it's been phenomenal.

Once we get people in, once we get people in they love it and they come back.

Well, and I think it's a true because you said that today during the lunch hour I think what maybe probably 80% were new people.

People.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we we certainly have regulars.

We love seeing our regulars.

We love getting to know people's names.

We like to think of it kind o like cheers without the alcohol.

But yeah, we love having new people.

The trick is getting people to understand that it's a restaurant.

It really is for everyone.

Come on in.

Come on in.

Once you come in, you'll see.

It's it's a great place.

Do you have what have you learned in the few years that you have been open?

Because, yeah, you had to create a business model and you had to have, and restaurants to succeed and fail, as you know, left and right.

Yeah.

I don't think we have enough air time or for what I've learned.

I've learned a lot.

I've learned about the grace of the Quad Cities.

I mean, people have really embraced this, so that's that's wonderful.

I've also learned the challenges of this.

Of this concept.

You know, that there are stil a lot of people that think like, oh, that's a great thing tha you're doing for the community, but they won't come in because they think it's for someone else.

And it's not it's for everyone.

And congratulations are in order, of course, because you were picked one of the citizens of the year for.

Thank you.

How important is that?

That, like you said, the partnerships, the the the recognition is secondary to you because of the work that you're doing.

But but that's another thing that you've learned a great deal about it is, is the partnerships in the quad Cities.

Yeah, absolutely.

We couldn't do what we do without other organizations referring people to us and cheerleading for us and me learning from other.

I've learned so much from other nonprofit directors.

And, yeah, the way the Quad Cities has gotten behind u has just been really phenomenal.

You are open Tuesdays through Saturdays for the lunch hour.

Yeah.

And then Thursday nights are the dinners.

Yeah.

Do you really look forward to the Thursday nights?

Because, I mean, since it's only once a week, it's a little more creative or a little.

It's definitely a different menu.

It's the same menu.

It's Thursday lunch.

Oh okay.

Yep.

Same menu Thursday lunch.

We just wanted to have some hours that are outside of working hours.

We have a lot more kids that come on Thursday nights.

Oh, okay.

Children always eat free.

We have a little kids play area, so we love kind of catering to kids.

So yeah, Thursday nights are a whole different vibe.

That's what I would say.

But.

And yes, I always I, I'm the person at the register on Thursday nights.

So I do look forward to that.

And you're always looking for volunteers, always looking for volunteers, especially volunteer service.

All of the people that serve our volunteers, and it's really easy.

It's not like you're it's not like servers at a fancy restaurant.

It's kind of like Chipotle or something like that, you know, like you're behind a line and you're just asking people what they want on their plate.

It's super easy.

Come volunteer.

That was Laura Mahn, founder and executive director of the NEST Cafe.

And once again, it serves lunch Tuesday through Saturday, 11 until two and dinners on Thursday five until eight at its location on Fourth Avenue in downtown Rock Island.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

At IHMVCU.

We've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt.

Public affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to you by The Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth management needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.