INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Farm Bureau’s (INFB) member delegates discussed such issues as data centers, energy and taxes during an August meeting designed to come up with a list of policy priorities for next year’s Indiana General Assembly session.

The 236 delegates met Aug. 22 In Danville, Ind., to discuss those priorities.

“Our annual delegate session is really the foundation of this organization; it’s the meat and potatoes,” Randy Kron, INFB president, said in a release. “Legislators at the local, state and national level know how involved our grassroots are at creating these policies every year, so Farm Bureau is their trusted source for information on policy impacting agriculture.”

The organization’s policy development process begins at the local level each year, as all counties can make policy suggestions or edits, INFB said. A resolutions committee debates the suggestions before they are brought before the delegates.

A big topic of conversation during the delegate session was data center development, said Katie Nelson, INFB’s executive director of public policy.

INFB knew going into the delegate session that data centers were a concern of its members, she told Farm World. Concerns about farmland preservation, local control and economic development kept coming up in the submissions to the resolutions committee, which largely point back to data centers, Nelson said.

“Although the discussion around the data center language in the policy book took up the most time during our delegate session, it wasn’t because our members were necessarily divided on the issue but more because they wanted to make sure we really got it right,” she said.

“Almost an entire page of new language was added on the topic in INFB’s policy book which included repealing some of the tax exemptions those developments currently receive. They also voted to prioritize responsible stewardship of local resources – including safeguards for local water supply – and respect for private property rights.”

INFB has been fielding questions and concerns about data centers for a couple years, Nelson said. The organization will always support local control of planning and zoning for these developments, but it’s important for landowners to understand the pros and cons, she added.

“Our team has brought in experts to provide informational webinars and in-person educational meetings for INFB members to learn about what to consider when looking at a data center development including water use, energy generation and rates, tax impact and farmland protection,” Nelson said.

The delegates discussed property and local income tax specifications to continue refining what was passed in Senate Enrolled Act 1 by the Indiana General Assembly in 2025. The legislation contained what Gov. Mike Braun called “historic tax relief” when he signed the measure in April 2025.

INFB members hope the legislature will continue Indiana’s property tax reform by protecting the farmland deduction, reducing assessed value for agricultural-use buildings and exempting the first $2 million of business personal property, Nelson said.

The delegates also included an exemption for nutrient-based food from being classified as “ultra processed,” INFB said That position was prompted by the Make America Healthy Again discussion expected to impact nutrition directives at the state and national level, the organization noted.

“Many nutrient-dense foods like yogurt, milk, meat and peanut butter involve processing, but ultra-processed classifications often ignore why and how they’re processed,” Nelson pointed out. “Focusing on nutrient quality rather than processing level ensures we don’t dismiss genuinely healthy foods simply because they’ve been handled.

“Processing is not unilaterally bad; the number of times an item is ‘processed’ does not make it bad. It is critical to take into consideration the nutrients of the items, not just looking whether an item has gone through some level of processing.”

INFB said its public policy team will work with the board of directors over the next few weeks to decide which priorities it will focus on next year at the state and national level.

“Going into a longer budget year this coming (Indiana) legislative session, our members just really want to make sure that agriculture is a priority and has a seat at the table in funding discussions,” Nelson said.