The University of Illinois will be the home of a new global center for excellence, designed to facilitate new and better ways to advance food and agricultural communications.

“The job and the challenge about communicating agriculture has grown, along with the issues,” says Owen Roberts, director of the U of I ag communications program and Prairie Farmer columnist. “The need has always been great, but the gap between ag and non-ag has continued to grow, and the issues have intensified.”

The center will be named for ag communications pioneer and Illinois professor emeritus Jim Evans, who was named a Prairie Farmer Honorary Master Farmer in 2010. The James F. Evans Global Center for Food and Agricultural Communications will continue to advance excellence through outreach, professional development, research, convenings and degree programs.

Roberts points to issues like sustainability, market accessibility, global trade, plant vs. animal protein, animal welfare, biotechnology and more, explaining that the new center will help train communicators to share ag’s story with decision-makers.

“When consumers, policymakers and decision-makers are better informed about agriculture, farmers will have a more productive, profitable and sustainable relationship with all those parties,” Roberts says, adding that consumer needs and preferences are constantly changing.

Known widely as the “grandfather of ag communications,” Evans pioneered ag comm as a field. Roberts joined the university three years ago, and he and his colleagues have rebuilt the undergraduate ag comm program on three principles based in Evans’ work: skill development, critical thinking and global awareness. Roberts believes the center will proceed from that success.

PIONEER: Shown here with current student Jersey Hesse, Jim Evans pioneered ag communications in the 1960s as a field. (University of Illinois)

An initial phase for the Evans Center will start this year in a dedicated space adjacent to a new learning innovation lab being constructed in the lower level of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Library, Information and Alumni Center.

“Illinois is uniquely positioned with both a leading agricultural industry and one of the largest urban centers to be a catalyst for new insights that will benefit food systems around the world,” says College of ACES Dean Germán Bollero.

Funding and more

To kick-start the more than $5 million fundraising campaign that is required to establish the Evans Center, an anonymous alum has made a sizable donation in Evans’ name. The center will continue to solicit donations and will focus on development for both students and professionals.

“I’m looking forward to seeing students working alongside experts from diverse backgrounds to tackle the most pressing communications challenges of today’s global food systems,” says Anna Ball, associate dean of academic programs in the College of ACES.

Roberts says there are many opportunities to reach out to people with balanced information, and that communication needs to be a two-way street — something professional agricultural communicators can help facilitate.

“You have to have two-way communication. It can’t all be a push. There has to be listening, then there’s talking, then there’s doing,” Roberts says. “If consumers can understand agriculture and if farmers can understand consumer needs, then people have information to make decisions about food and agriculture.”

Why host the center at the U of I? Roberts says it’s the right mix of rural and urban students, convening at the heart of a world-class agricultural research center, all building skills and lifelong relationships with alumni, who can also learn from students — including how young people are communicating issues. He imagines future projects in issues management, writing projects, learning programs and more.

“We have been talking with potential stakeholders to ensure we have the best possible vision for what the center needs to make an impact globally,” Ball says. “Ultimately, the Evans Center will find new and better ways to advance food and agricultural communications to create a better, more sustainable future for producers and consumers.”