Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now attempting to re-establish Illinois’ commitment to agriculture to cement its role in the future of the state.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture recently announced more than $600,000 in grants to support renewable fuels, livestock production and the Illinois wine industry through “Opportunity Returns,” Blagojevich’s economic development strategy. This announcement comes at a time when Blagojevich is carrying out policies that will intertwine homeland security with the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

“There are 73,000 farms, including large and small,” said Jeff Squibb, communications manager for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, commenting on the importance of the Illinois’ agricultural sector. “So if you assume there’s two operators per farm you’re looking at 146,000 farmers.”

Funds for the grants came by way of the Department of Agriculture’s AgriFIRST program that was approved by the Illinois General assembly in 2001 to bolster Illinois’ agricultural sector. The program’s creation came after the legislative body found there was an inadequate supply of funds to enable persons engaged in agriculture to pursue agricultural tasks at the time. The program was also created to address the stagnate supply of agricultural products in Illinois and the unemployment that resulted.

“In fiscal year 2005 the program was $384,000,” said Squibb, noting the substantial increase in funds granted through the AgriFIRST program relative to the preceding year.

Nearly $70,000 of the total grant was awarded to the University in order to create an Illinois Certified Frozen Boar Semen Program to produce a health and quality certified boar semen project for Illinois producers.

Beyond the grant money, Blagojevich is also attempting to include the Illinois Department of Agriculture in homeland security efforts. The state government has trained additional staff as emergency response personnel, bringing the agency’s total homeland security team to more than a dozen, according to the Illinois State Budget Book Fiscal Year 2007.

The report goes on to say that the state has completed the first stage of a Geographic Information System initiative to “geocode” farms with animals, production facilities, poultry flocks and agriculture facilities to aid in the planning for, and response to, an emergency animal disease outbreak.

“We’ve undertaken a tremendous amount of training,” said Gene Niles, a veterinarian for the Animal Disease Laboratory, a part of the Department of Agriculture that provides a variety of services, including animal disease testing, meat inspection and animal feed analysis.

This training includes preparation for a terrorist attack and or an epidemic outbreak.

In addition, the department has increased its number of private veterinarians prepared to respond to emergency events by conducting emergency response training.

“We’re right in the thick of it,” Niles said.

As fiscal year 2007 approaches, Blagojevich claims that he will continue to pay attention to the agricultural sector in all its varied forms.