Letter to Ed.: Bob Heuer

Dear Editor:

Twenty-two years ago, I wrote this Chicago Reader essay titled “Runway Inflation: Ignoring history, viable alternatives, and common sense, the people pushing for an airport in Peotone are dragging us all into their fantasy world.”

Since 1985, the eastern Will County community has lived under the cloud of a state taxpayer-funded agenda to turn rolling countryside into concrete, asphalt, and rooftops. Never in the past four decades have southern Cook County boosters – nor their enablers in Springfield – invited open public discussion on the best way for the area to grow.

To the contrary.

The pro-airport gang has a track record for bullying every local political leader who ever publicly entertained the idea that rich soils could underpin a better way to sustain life in the Kankakee River watershed.

Turning the page on an obsolete economic-development strategy is what led Judy Ogalla to first run for elected office. Now, as Will County Board Chair, the Monee Republican wants Will, Cook, and Kankakee Counties to collaborate on a plan to unite unconnected agri-food, nutrition, and conservation groups.

The unifying force? A comprehensive funding plan to make locally-produced, nutritious food more widely available.

On June 20, the Will County Board unanimously approved a resolution urging the National Association of Counties (NACo) to adopt “Good Food for All” policy. On July 12, board member Dan Butler (R-Frankfort) will make the pitch to NACo at its annual conference in Florida.

“Good Food for All” is a policy framework to incentivize neighboring counties to facilitate intergovernmental cooperation and community-driven partnerships. The problem that needs solving became clear early in the pandemic. Empty grocery shelves underlined the need for well-resourced, regional-scale local food supply networks that complement global food supply chains.

Northeastern Illinois has the transportation infrastructure to ship agricultural exports. What it doesn’t have is the infrastructure to enable a thriving regional farm economy.

Good food for all will be but one outcome of a well-executed policy. Another benefit would be creation of a market-based firewall. A financial investment program is needed to drive the integration natural and working land uses and to check sprawling patterns of real estate development that are forever siphoning resources from land-locked and/or brownfield-ridden municipalities.

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning recognizes the need. But nowhere in CMAP’s seven-county jurisdiction is there an organization in place to solve the problem. Nobody has stepped up to catalyze achievement of the regional planning goal: “To grow Chicagoland’s agriculture, Ag tech, and food processing sector into a national model for equitable growth and innovation.”

Chicagoland is primed to be the NACo pilot. And Will County is poised to take the helm.

A tri-county “research triangle” can engage the public and activate projects to improve soil health, food and water quality, public health, and local economies.

The Pritzker Administration should listen. After all, Good Food for All” might be the best way for the Land of Lincoln to show a polarized nation how Republicans and Democrats can work together for the benefit of the American people.

Next week, we’ll consider where Will County might start with the design of Northeastern Illinois’ “Good Food for All” research triangle.

Bob Heuer,

Director of HNA Networks