At the Aug. 21 meeting the committee received a Farm Bureau update covering recent outreach, events and potential conservation opportunities.

Arnold, representing Farm Bureau activities to the committee, said the Farm Bureau board reaffirmed Joe White as its representative to the Farmland Protection Commission. He listed recent events including a young‑farmer tractor pull at the county fair, a truckload peach sale, the Fox Valley Beekeepers monthly meeting, participation at the Batavia Farmers Market, and the county 4‑H Blue Ribbon sale, which he said raised $206,000 for 4‑H participants.

Arnold said the Farm Bureau will feature Garlic Breath Farms — Tony and Sharon Persky — in a new advertising campaign highlighting benefits of Farm Bureau membership and that the bureau is planning fundraisers (a scholarship drawdown in November and drive‑through barbecues) to support college scholarships. He also said the Farm Bureau is working with the Peace Center (formerly the Juvenile Justice Center) on a pilot to have youth help maintain a pollinator garden at the Kane County Farm Bureau headquarters and that his organization had hosted a cover‑crop field day with Soil and Water Conservation staff.

On conservation topics, Arnold said Jonathan Koepke from Encamp gave a presentation to the Farm Bureau board about wetlands mitigation banking and that the Evans property could be a potential candidate for private wetlands mitigation banking given its pasture area. He also noted an article and social‑media work to promote the Urban Master Farmer program and referred committee members to Kane County Connects for profile articles on ARPA‑funded farmer grant participants.

Why it matters: the Farm Bureau update highlights local outreach, fundraising and conservation conversations that intersect with county farmland protection work and extension efforts. The Farm Bureau’s comment that the Evans parcel could interest a wetlands mitigation banker suggests a potential conservation and market tool under evaluation by private firms.

No formal action was taken on these update items; they were presented for committee information.