By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Effort is being made to have all 150 state lawmakers in Indiana, before the year is over, pay a visit to a farm to help make sure decisions on matters involving agriculture are educated.

Indiana Farm Bureau (INFB), concerned more lawmakers than ever have no farming experience, is spearheading the challenge. Katrina Hall, director of public policy for the Indianapolis-based INFB, said the goal established six months ago is already one-third of the way to being achieved.

 “We think getting out there and seeing it firsthand, there’s no better teacher for understanding what our farmer-members are doing on a daily basis,” said Hall.

House Minority Leader Terry Goodin (D-Austin) is among the food producers at the Statehouse who believe just one visit by someone with no direct experience on a farm can have a measureable impact.

”It’s just a lack of knowledge about agriculture in general,” said Goodin, who has 100 head of beef cattle.

Specifically, Hall said the effort is in response to the pushback from the general public last year on livestock operations. She said it’s important for people to know livestock farming is much different in terms of the care provided to animals and the handling of manure, from what it was long ago.

So, if lawmakers come back more knowledgeable from a visit, the hope is more informed decisions are made on issues related agriculture.

Much of the public outcry during the 2017 legislative session involved restrictions governing confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, and fears about pollution, odor and perceived harmful impacts on nearby residents. Goodin said people unfamiliar with raising farm animals should visit a CAFO to see for themselves how clean and well-run those operations are, in most cases, before rushing to judgment.

At least six members of local Farm Bureau groups in each county are also being asked to visit the Statehouse during this year’s short legislative session that began Jan. 3, to invite lawmakers who haven’t gone to a farm yet to pay them a visit. The session is supposed to adjourn on March 15.

“We’re asking them to try and arrange one when the weather is a little bit more hospitable,” Hall said.

State Rep. Jim Pressel (R-Rolling Prairie) grew up on a farm. He’s a homebuilder now but sets foot on a farm at least a couple of times a month, with his most recent stop being a dairy operation in Mill Creek.

“I sure think taking the time to visit one and to see it, and wander around on it and ask some questions, would surely help you make some of those decisions,” he said.

Pressel after leaving the farm spent 10 years traveling from Maine to California as a truck driver, then turned to homebuilding. His father, James, continues to farm and so does his sister, Tiffany.

“Even if you only spend a couple of hours there – one hour – I think you’d get a worthwhile education on what goes on in today’s farming,” he explained.

Hall said misconceptions about farming are not uncommon especially with people being more removed from agriculture than ever before, and decisions based on lack of adequate knowledge and emotions can have major consequences. Lawmakers just riding in a combine during their visits and seeing the technology inside the cab or going for a ride in a truck to an elevator helps them gain a better understanding, she added.

“People’s livelihoods and their bottom line are at stake. We really can’t afford to have somebody outside agriculture painting the picture of what a modern livestock farm is like,” she said.