WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) met with leaders from the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), Illinois Pork Producers and Illinois Farmers Union this week to discuss the support needed for our state’s agriculture industry and our farmers. Duckworth and the members discussed the importance of supporting our family farmers by expanding the biofuels market, increasing agricultural exports and protecting and improving farm safety net programs as our American farmers are being decimated by Donald Trump’s erratic trade wars and continued gutting of critical federal agricultural programs. Photos from the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) and Illinois Pork Producers meetings can be found on the Senator’s website.
“America has always depended on our nation’s farmers to grow the food and fuel we need, and I’m proud to advocate for them on both the national and international stage,” Duckworth said. “The work of Illinois’s farmers and agriculture industry is so important to the strength of our state and our nation, yet these farmers are taking hit after hit under this administration. I will continue to do everything I can to support all farmers, especially members of the Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Pork Producers and Illinois Farmers Union across the state at the federal level.”
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In the Senate, Duckworth has been a leader in supporting biofuels. As a founding co-chair of the Senate Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Caucus, she has been a strong advocate for expansion of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by utilizing the biofuels and agricultural sectors. To help increase the availability of E15 biofuels, Duckworth helped introduce the bipartisan Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2025and the bipartisan Next Generations Fuel Act to allow the year-round, nationwide sale of ethanol blends higher than 10 percent. Duckworth additionally helped introduce the bipartisan Home Front Energy Independence Act to ban Russian oil and expand use and production of biofuel that’s grown in the American heartland, while providing American families with a less expensive option to fuel their vehicles. Earlier this year she helped introduced the Farm to Fly Act to help accelerate the production and development of SAF.
As a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Duckworth has been an advocate for Illinois pork, biofuels and agriculture industries across the globe and helped secure significant wins for Illinois and American agriculture. After Duckworth’s visit in 2023, Japan announced a regulatory change that will lead to an increase in imports from U.S. biofuel producers, supporting our farmers and growing Illinois’s economy, and following a prior trip to Taiwan in 2022, she helped secure a commitment from Taiwan to purchase an estimated $2.6 billion of our Illinois’s corn and soybeans.
