As we build a kitchen to serve food producers and entrepreneurs, I’m seeing the dangerous ground on which our food supply rests in Illinois. We are a state of rich farmland, yet we import 95% of the food we eat, sending our hard-earned money out of state– $48 BILLION annually.

Fortunately we have terrific people hard at work to change this, to transform our food system into a healthy, more secure and more prosperous one.

I urge everyone to find their Illinois State Senator and email them to support HB3990. It is before the Illinois Senate now. Known as the Illinois Food, Farms and Jobs Act, it will address economic development, public health, environmental improvements and emergency preparedness in a single vision.

If you don’t know who your senator is, you can easily find out using Civic Footprint, a great tool created by the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

I hate politics; but what bothers me more are policies that keep us unsafe, unhealthy, and unable to correct the problems we face. Some terrific people are tackling this enormous problem and working to make a better life for all of us. Help them out. Email your senator and ask them to support HB3990— ask them to sponsor it.

You can read the Food, Farms & Jobs task force report online. Stay up to date at the Task Force’s website.