Linda Zellmer, Government Information and Data Services Librarian at Western Illinois University, has used data from the 2007 Census of Agriculture and a geographic information system to develop a set of maps showing where the foods consumed at the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, such as turkey, cranberries, squash, and green beans, are grown. A comprehensive poster including all of the maps shows where all of the Thanksgiving foods are grown in the United States. The maps and posters based on data from the 1997, 2002 and 2007 Census of Agriculture are available on her web site at:
http://faculty.wiu.edu/LR-Zellmer/thanksgiving.html.

The comprehensive poster titled "Where does Thanksgiving Dinner Grow?" is available at:
http://faculty.wiu.edu/LR-Zellmer/thanksgiving/2007/Turkey07Poster.pdf.

For more information about her research, or about government and legal information, please contact Linda Zellmer at LR-Zellmer@wiu.edu or 309-298-2723.

Interested in starting your own farm business? JWCC's new Sustainable Local Foods Farming program provides courses and hands-on training in sustainable fruit and vegetable production, entrepreneurship, and marketing. Click here for more information.

See and hear the history of Illinois agriculture told by the people who lived it. The Illinois State Museum launched the Audio-Video Barn website (http://avbarn.museum.state.il.us), featuring 300 hours of interviews with more than 130 people involved with agriculture in Illinois over the past 129 years. The website is the culmination of a two-year Oral History of Illinois Agriculture project led by the Illinois State Museum and Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.