Nearly 150 people joined Farm Foundation in Libertyville, Illinois, to celebrate the grand opening of the Farm Foundation Innovation and Education Campus at 31330 North Milwaukee Avenue. The blustery weather on Saturday, September 28, 2024, couldn’t keep the crowd away as they gathered to learn about the importance of this special new hub for the food and agriculture sectors.  

Newly constructed on the campus, the Innovation and Education Center (IEC), designed to be in visual harmony with the property’s historic barn and farmhouse, houses a multi-media room, flexible gathering spaces, and a demonstration kitchen. These spaces along with the outdoor fields will all help to engage the senses and bring agriculture to life in unique ways for stakeholders across food and agriculture through new programs, such as the AG101 Bootcamp. The facility is also envisioned as an ideal meeting space where key players can come together to advance solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing agriculture.  

Farm Foundation built the 4,000-square-foot building on its 14-acre property which operated as a grain and livestock farm for a large part of the 19^th and most of the 20^th centuries. It was selected from over 40 sites that were considered in the Chicagoland area as the perfect location to anchor Farm Foundation’s mission to build understanding at the intersections of agriculture and society.  The farm campus was selected for its ease of access by all forms of transportation, the natural beauty of the farm and surrounding area, and the multiple purposes the property enables. 

Key Moments

After the Illinois State FFA officers presented the colors, Farm Foundation Board Chair Dan Basse and Farm Foundation President and CEO Shari Rogge-Fidler provided opening remarks. Reflecting on multiple inspirations and the efforts of many that came together to make the IEC a reality, their opening remarks anchored the vision for the new campus in place-based purpose for Farm Foundation’s programs and engagement.  

The audience then heard from the Honorable Michael Johanns, former United States Secretary of Agriculture. “This building will house experts and advocates in collaboration working together to build ideas and solutions to take action to change agriculture for generations to come,” said Johanns.  

He was followed by Ambassador Darci Vetter, head of global public policy at PepsiCo, who spoke to innovations in the agri-food supply chain; and Chancellor Robert Jones of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who addressed the importance of radical collaborations and place-based strategies, hallmarks of the vision for the Farm Foundation IEC. “The challenges that we face are too large and too complex for any one entity to solve alone,” Jones said. 

After the ribbon cutting, the campus was open for visitors to explore. A highlight of the event was the several in-field demonstrations of innovations in agriculture from Beck’s Hybrids, InnerPlant, John Deere, Purdue Extension UAV, Syngenta, and the University of Illinois Center for Digital Ag. Attendees also enjoyed food samples from Calvetti Culinary Creations, Eli’s Cheesecake, Kraft Heinz, and Quaker from PepsiCo Foods. 

The Innovation and Education Center will be Farm Foundation’s new home, replacing the office space currently held in Oak Brook. The project team included architecture firm Kahler Slater, project manager JLL, and general contractor Summit Design + Build. Construction began in August 2024 and completed in roughly 12 months. 

For further information and additional photos from the grand opening ceremony, please access the media kit. For inquiries into space rental, please contact elizabeth@farmfoundation.org, or to learn more about collaboration, reach out to amanda@farmfoundation.org. 

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