Durbin Announces Fifth Member of FSA Illinois State Committee
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the Obama Administration has chosen Gordon Stine of St. Elmo as the fifth member of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Illinois State Committee. He will join Darell Sarff of Chandlerville; Jill Appell of Altona; Gerardo (Jerry) Jimenez of Cobden; and Joyce Matthews of Nokomis in overseeing the activities of the FSA in Illinois.
“Gordon Stine has lifelong experience in Illinois agriculture,” said Durbin. “During his tenure as President of the Illinois Farmers Union, he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of farmers throughout the state and ensure a livable wage for thousands. I look forward to working with the entire FSA Illinois State Committee, Secretary Vilsack and President Obama on both national and local agricultural issues.”
Stine, a fifth generation Illinois farmer, owns and operates Stine Farms, a 2,500-acre grain farm in Fayette County and lives in St. Elmo, Illinois. He is a lifetime member of the Illinois Farmers Union, where he currently serves as a Co-op Developer and previously served as President. He also served for three years on the National Farmers Union Board of Directors, where he participated in agriculture issues advocacy in Washington, DC. In addition to his work on behalf of Illinois farmers, he has advocated vigorously for other issues that he believes in and served as a precinct committeeman for two decades.
The Farm Service Agency aims to stabilize farm income, help farmers conserve land and water resources, provide credit to new or disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and help farm operations recover from the effects of disaster. The Farm Service Agency uses a unique system under which federal farm programs are administered locally – a grassroots approach gives farmers a much-needed say in how Federal actions affect their communities and their individual operations.