Member Benefits

Members of The Chicago Farmers receive the following benefits. If you have specific questions, please reach out to [email protected].

• Monthly meetings featuring qualified speakers discussing industry topics such as policy matters, leasing trends, land values and best practices in agriculture 
  
  
• Privilege of bringing one or more complimentary guest who has not attended a Chicago Farmers program to a regular monthly meeting*
  
  
• Networking opportunities with people of similar interests
  
  
• Annual subscription to the digital news featuring timely articles and meeting reviews 
  
  
• Postcard notification of meetings and special events
  
  
• Optional participation in international study tour and travel opportunities primarily focused on foreign agribusiness operations
  
  

• Summer field trips to visit local agribusiness sites

* Does not include Annual Holiday Event

Why Join?

If you miss the farm as much as Ben Riensche did you ought to join The Chicago Farmers. Ben grew up on an Iowa farm and he loved everything about that farm. It was in his blood, and he could think of nothing else that he'd rather do. But his father told him to leave the farm and get an education.

Ben obeyed his father. After getting an MBA from the University of Chicago, he was very successful in banking jobs all over the world. but the call of the farm never left him. His roots were in the land, not in the canyons of Wall Street, so he joined The Chicago Farmers. "I wanted to hear someone talk about anhydrous ammonia," he said.

We're not saying a seat at our luncheon tables is the same as sitting behind the seat of your old tractor, but at least you'll be with others whose roots are also deep into agriculture. For example, one of our meetings featured Monsanto’s Dr. Robb Fraley, Chief Technology Officer, as our luncheon speaker. He's the inventor of Roundup Ready ® crops. In the audience was Francis Childs, the national corn growing champion. The room was packed with hugely successful farm operators, farm owners and landlords, traders, and farmland experts, all of whom were approachable and ready to personally help you with your career or hand you their card and say: "Go see this guy and tell him I sent you."

Every single soul who passes through our doors shares your passion for agriculture. Very few could name work that they would rather do, no matter the salary or title. And when they get too far away from the land, they have to find a place where people get worked up about things like anhydrous ammonia. They come to us not only for an agricultural touchstone, but to meet who's who in agribusiness and to get a career boost.

Most of our monthly meetings take place at the Illini Center, located just a few blocks from the Chicago Board of Trade and the Mercantile Exchange, known today as the CME Group Inc. where the world, including agricultural commodities, comes to manage risk and thrive in an environment filled with volatility and uncertainty. We'll save a seat for you.