By SARAH B. AUBREY
Indiana Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week the 30-member Indiana Agri Institute, recently renamed from Indiana Agricultural Leadership Institute, class converged on Washington, D.C. for the group’s biannual trip to the nation’s capital.

Class members participated in activities and learned about current events and issues facing agriculture during the two-year program, including a weeklong trip to Washington, D.C. Once the class concludes with a capstone international trip in 2010, ‘graduates’ become members of the more than 330-strong network of previous class participants who represent all sectors of ag production and trade. The class now also includes members in the food processing industry and in the environmental policy and research arena.  The Agri Institute is celebrating its 25th year.

During the Washington, D.C. experience, class members met with more than 20 different organizations and agencies to discuss topics such as ag trade, fiscal and environmental policy, health care, and renewable energy. While in D.C., the U.S. President’s budget was unveiled, the State of the Union address was spoken and the behemoth federal stimulus package was unveiled. According to class members, these topics certainly dominated, but for agriculture two major discussions were repeated continually-farm subsidies and various themes on the environment as it relates to agricultural production.

Phyllis Legan, of Legan Livestock and Grain in Greencastle, Ind., was most impacted by the discussion of environmental issues related to production agriculture.

“There is an idea out there to create wetlands at tile outlets to capture nutrients, especially nitrogen,” she described. “I was interested to hear about (some of these) ideas and understand if they are feasible for producers. Most farmers want to do well for the environment.”

A number of environmental issues raised also worried Legan.
She encouraged her fellow producers to become involved in areas important to their operations because many concerns are shared by neighbors. “There is no room to be too independent; we are just too few not to work together,” Legan said of farmers.

Denise Derrer, Danville, Ind., public information director for the Indiana Board of Animal Health, is also a member of the class. Derrer is knowledgeable about the livestock industry, but realized one of the great benefits of the trip was learning about other segments of agriculture and the challenges that face those areas.
“As a state agency, I understand rulemaking well, but going to D.C. to get an up close understanding of things like the farm bill and how programs are funded from it was very revealing and interesting,” Derrer admitted.

Derrer especially learned about rural health care initiatives from the House Ag Subcommittee on Nutrition. For Derrer, the biggest take away from the weeklong D.C. excursion was the realization that she could make a difference by contacting leaders in the capital.
“I realize that I need to write my Congress people. I just didn’t realize how much they paid attention to the comments they receive. They were really soliciting comments from us,” Derrer explained. “It was a call to be proactive.”

“It was interesting to hear how much water quality came up,” said Matt Williams of Warsaw, Ind., who works for The Nature Conservancy. “It wasn’t just environmental groups, either. It is interesting to hear from our class and our presenters about their perceptions on the environment. It really varies a lot. Even with everything going on in the economy, the environment keeps playing into it.”

Through the week, the Agri Institute met organizations ranging from USDA and EPA to the Environmental Defense Fund, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union. The class met Sen. Richard Lugar, Rep. Mike Pence (both R-Ind.), members of ag leadership programs from four other states and the group was hosted for dinner by a former Agri Institute class member who lobbies in D.C. on ag trade issues. The next meeting will be April 2-4 in Kokomo.