DeKALB – The company that brought the winged ear logo to farmfields around the country is in the
running for Illinois top business, and the public can vote online to make it No. 1.
DeKalb AgResearch, later DeKalb Genetics and now a subsidiary of Monsanto, has been named one of 17 finalists for the title of Illinois’ top business by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
In honor of the state of Illinois’ bicentennial, the museum is coordinating an effort to identify the state’s top businesses, leaders, movies and more.
Residents will have until noon Friday to cast their votes for the state’s top business online at www.illinoistop200.com. DeKalb Ag has been a pioneer in developing corn hybrids that would resist disease and yield more grain. It introduced the winged ear logo in the 1930s, as a way of conveying the message that hybrid corn could help farmers earn more by producing higher yield corn crops.
Other nominees on the list include familiar Illinois-based companies such as Walgreens, Sears Roebuck and Co., State Farm and McDonald’s.
Every two weeks for the rest of 2018, people will select from a new category so that by the state’s 200th anniversary Dec. 3, voters will have selected 10 favorite things from 20 different categories, thus creating Illinois’ top 200.
