A great crowd of both agriculture and non-ag residents from Christian County and surrounding area, attended the 29th Annual Christian County Ag Group Ag Appreciation Dinner held over the noon hour today at the Christian County Ag Fair.
The Ag Group is a committee of local civic and business leaders whose goal is to keep agriculture in the spotlight in Christian County.
Monies they raise each year go to pay for the annual dinner, as well as to fund scholarships for high school seniors going to college majoring in ag related fields.
This year, 3 students received one-thousand dollar scholarships. The family of long-time Christian County Soil and Water Conservation District chair Mark Roth, who passed away last November, also gave money to the Ag Group so that 3 students could receive ag scholarships this year. Scholarship winners Karsen Manuel, Jhia Walker, and Cole Paulek were presented certificates to honor their scholarship. Mark's wife Diana spoke as the scholarships were being presented.
4 Christian County 4-H'ers that earned the right to travel to Scotland to experience agriculture there, then spoke to the Ag Appreciation Dinner audience. Chloe Grant thanked the Ag Group for the scholarship they received.
Ben Wamsley enjoyed the various livestock shows they attended in Scotland and Ireland.
Jay Bliler told the Ag Appreciation Dinner crowd he liked seeing the various rural living historical sites they toured.
Emma Pistorius liked comparing agriculture between our country and Scotland.
Guest speaker for the Ag Appreciation Dinner was Mark Gebhards, Executive Director of the Governmental Affairs and Commodities Division at the Illinois Farm Bureau.
Gebhards spent most of his time talking about just getting back from Washington where a new 5-year Farm Bill is being debated. He said he doesn't expect the new bill to get passed in September, but more hopeful it'll get done by the end of this year to avoid an election year.
Gebhards added that state bills regulating citing of wind, solar and C-O-2 pipelines are also on the radar from Illinois Farm Bureau's standpoint, due to their impact on farmer property rights.
This was the last year that Marietta Dunkirk, owner of Country Girl Catering, catered the annual Ag Group Ag Appreciation Dinner. Dunkirk is retiring.
