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Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Harvest covers these agriculture-related topics through an expanding network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio- regular reports are aired on member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television documentaries and features, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking. They are committed to the highest journalistic standards. Click here to read their ethics standards.Harvest Public Media was launched in 2010 with the support of a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Today, the collaboration is supported by CPB, the partner stations, and contributions from underwriters and individuals.Tri States Public Radio is an associate partner of Harvest Public Media. You can play an important role in helping Harvest Public Media and Tri States Public Radio improve our coverage of food, field and fuel issues by joining the Harvest Network.

Always a Farmer

Bill Wheelhouse/Harvest Public Media

In 1986, Becky Doyle was helping her husband run the family’s hog farming operation. She also had a side business of marketing gift baskets made from Illinois products.

But that wasn’t enough: Doyle decided she would make a run for the Illinois House.

“I was young, naive and thought I could run as a Republican in a district where it was 11:4 Democrat,” Doyle said.

She ran against a Democratic incumbent. She lost, but it changed her future. During that campaign, she had a popular Republican secretary of state come into the area to stump for her. Doyle and Secretary of State Jim Edgar built up a good relationship and chatted about rural development, international marketing, and agricultural issues between campaign appearances.  Edgar’s spouse, Brenda Edgar, used Doyle’s gift baskets as thank you gifts along the campaign trail.

Four years later, Jim Edgar became the governor of Illinois and he picked Becky Doyle, who was 37 at the time, to head up the Illinois Department of Agriculture – a job she held through Edgar’s full two terms as Governor.

There was some initial skepticism.

“Not because I was a female, but because I was young,” Doyle said. “The largest staff I had ever had was eight part-time staff at Blackburn College and going to 770 employees (at the Agriculture Department) – I was a little skeptical when I walked in the door.”

She served in the mid-1990s when the controversial issue of large livestock facilities emerged. It was during her tenure that the state adopted its first set of rules to regulate them, something that people weren’t expecting from a hog farmer.

“I’m married to a pork producer, both my brothers are pork producers, so there was a lot of skepticism that I’d be willing to or able to administer a livestock waste program as a disinterested party,” Doyle said.

It was and remains an emotional issue for many people.

Doyle doesn’t spend as much time on the family’s hog operation now. But even working as a consultant she hasn’t left ag behind, helping the state of Iowa come up with a strategic plan for its agriculture industry.

This is the eighth installment of the 2013 edition of My Farm Roots, Harvest Public Media’s series chronicling Americans’ connection to the land. Click here to explore more My Farm Roots stories, and click here to share your own.

Harvest Public Media’s reporter in Springfield, Ill., comes to Harvest with a background of covering state government and rural issues. For the past eight years, Bill was general manager of public radio station WUIS in Springfield. Prior to that, he spent a decade as State Capitol bureau chief for Illinois Public Radio. During his time in the Illinois statehouse Bill won several awards including Best Investigative Reporter from the Associated Press and Best Statehouse Beat Reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors in 2004. Bill also spent eight years as News Director at WIUM public radio in Macomb, Ill., and is a past president of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.