The new center will provide connection and training for students and professionals who communicate about food and agriculture.

By: Holly Spangler, Senior Editor, Prairie Farmer

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.