There's nothing like starting a conference with a bold statement.
"Our purpose is to make Indiana the Silicon Valley of food and ag innovation," said Jane Ade Stevens, CEO of the Indiana Soybean Alliance/Corn Marketing Council, said last Monday as she welcomed attendees to this year's Livestock, Forage and Grain Forum in Indianapolis.
By "our," Stevens was referring to the recently-created entity AgriNovus Indiana, whose mission is to promote ag innovation and technology in the state. The theme of this year's forum was "Let's Talk Jobs, Dollars and Sense," and the conference was focused on economic development centered on agriculture in Indiana.
Stevens backed up her opening statement with some solid facts. Indiana farmers are great at growing corn, soybeans and livestock. "Crossroads of America" is more than just a catch phrase—the state really is ideally located as a transportation hub. We have a good work force. And we have an excellent innovation infrastructure.
But she said that Indiana agriculture has much untapped business potential that needs to be developed, and used Fair Oaks' new "Fairlife" milk product as an example.
"Fair Oaks is a wonderful asset to Indiana and they've developed a great new product in Fairlife. But the processing went to Michigan," she said. "We don't want to lose the processing anymore. We want it to stay here in Indiana."
This year's forum featured two panel discussions on ag economic development. One panel titled "From Barns to Bacon" focused on how investment in agriculture brings value to rural communities, and some of the accompanying challenges.
Moderated by John Katzenberger, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, other panel members included Jasper County grain and livestock farmer and county commissioner Kendell Culp, Steve Eberly, Warren County Economic Development director, Danita Rodibaugh, from a Jasper County grain and livestock operation, and Ryan Sands, a Kosciusko County grain and hog farmer.
Rodibaugh led off the discussion by saying there were huge opportunities for Indiana farm products in the export market.
"This is an exciting time to be in protein," she said.
But part of the ability to capture the value from Hoosier farm products depends on the ability of farmers to produce them and be able to expand when needed. Katzenberger asked Sands to describe how his family was able to expand their hog operation near Silver Lake, despite opposition from some in the community.
Sands explained that his family wanted to build a new hog barn in order to bring his two younger brothers into the operation, and create opportunities for future generations. As they began to talk with their neighbors about their plans, they encountered some resistance.
"We thought we had good relationships with our neighbors, but we found one we didn't have the greatest relationship with," he said.
Although there were public meetings on the subject and about 150 letters sent to the editor, Sands said that they took a positive approach and stuck to it throughout the process. They also used it as a chance to do some education.
"My wife and I both do a lot of social media, and we saw this as a chance to educate people," he said. "People really didn't understand what we were going to do, and some literally thought we were going to kill them."
Sands credited an ag-friendly local government, community support from the local ag sector, and help from Indiana Pork and Indiana Farm Bureau in ultimately being able to expand. He said that their reputation was also a critical factor.
"Enough people in the community knew who we were, what we did, and how we conducted our business. That really helped," he said.
Culp, likewise stressed the need for ongoing education of the non-ag community members, and said there is a definite "smaller-is-better" bias out there, as well as a general lack of understanding about modern farming.
Culp added that when a livestock building or expansion project comes up, the most likely arguments to be brought up by opponents include loss of property values, odor and water quality, information about which is readily available on the Internet. He said farmers need to be prepared for such situations.
"Most non-farm people today have the idea that farming's really not very complicated, when in fact it's highly technical, far beyond what the average person would understand or believe," he said. "That puts it back to us to educate others, and get out in front of situations like Ryan's family did."
Culp also mentioned better ag zoning, including intensive ag zones, better siting of livestock facilities, including reciprocal setbacks, and where feasible, methane digesters as factors that could help advance expansion of the livestock sector.
Rodibaugh stressed the need to be prepared, not just for expansion projects, but all of the time.
"Whether it's time to expand, or just a casual conversation at church, everyone in the audience should have the facts on their lips at all times," she said. "The naysayers are very sophisticated, but we can't let them define us. We have to tell them what we're doing on our farms in a positive way."
A second panel discussion, "Let's Talk Turkey about Economic Development," focused on how Farbest Foods of Huntingburg, a turkey-processing company, looked at various factors in deciding which rural community to locate their new facility in. Ultimately, the new plant was located in Vincennes.
Panel members included Ted Seger, Farbest president, Phil Seger, Farbest human resources director, Andy Tauer, Indiana Soybean/Indiana Corn director of livestock, and Indiana Economic Development representative Eric Dowden. This panel was also moderated by Katzenberger.
Ted Seger led off by saying that Farbest had been approached by its retailer-customers wanting Farbest to double its turkey production. After the company decided to expand, it became a very competitive process between three primary communities vying to land the $70 million plant, which employs 400. Seger said the company put together a team and developed a list of criteria that sought to take the emotion out of the decision.
Some of the primary criteria included availability of a good work force, availability of water and sewer infrastructure, proximity to
an existing turkey base with potential to expand the number of growers, ready availability of grain, and community acceptance for an animal processing facility.
At the end of the process, Vincennes narrowly beat out Terre Haute and Owensboro, Ky., based on those criteria, as well as passing Farbest's "gut feel test." Vincennes was also seen as being "more ready" than the other two communities in terms of responding quickly to Farbest's need for information and being truly "shovel ready."
"Knox County had their infrastructure in place for a processing plant, and it was very evident our company was going to receive tremendous local support county support, and support from ISDA and the Indiana Economic Development Corp.," said Seger.
Tauer added that given low crop prices, many grain farmers are now looking at adding livestock to their operations as a way to diversify and as a risk management strategy. It's also a way to bring children back into the family operation.
"It's a great time to be in agriculture, and agriculture brings more to the local communities than just dollars and cents," he said. "Farmers are also active in their local communities and add a lot in terms of their presence and involvement. But to keep the value-added components in Indiana, we need ag-zoned areas, and we need to be talking more about that."