Internet is among the issues at hand
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
Members of the Indiana Farm Bureau met to determine the organization’s policy positions as 2017 approaches.
All 92 Indiana counties were represented. Representatives discussed a range of issues, including saving prime farmland, electric demand fees, educational opportunities and the need for cellphone and broadband service in the state’s rural areas.
“Our members are concerned with infrastructure in the broadest sense, including the need for high-speed broadband in rural areas,” Indiana Farm Bureau president Randy Kron said in a release. “Broadband ‘to-the-last-mile’ is critically important so that educational and economic opportunities are available to all of rural Indiana. It’s time to do something transformational, just as rural electrification did in the 1930s.”
Members unanimously supported pushes for increased road funding and policies that eliminate food deserts (a low-income area where many residents have little or no access to a supermarket or grocery store).
“Food deserts are a very serious issue for low-income families whose dollars do not go as far when they are forced to purchase food at a gas station or convenience store because there is no grocery nearby. Those food options are not only more expensive, but they are also generally less nutritious,” said Kron.
The Bureau also opposed reductions to federal crop insurance programs and will send recommendations to the American Farm Bureau Federation in January.