By Lindsey Berebitsky
Communities rely on farmers to produce the food that sits on their dinner table, and farmers rely on consumers to provide a market for their harvest. When farmers need to know which providers to go to for the best seed, fertilizers and tractors, they most often turn to one another and to scientists for advice.
The community that forms across research, production and supply chains is a key piece of what makes agriculture a backbone of the American economy and culture. Some Hoosier farmers have also been experimenting outside of standard agricultural practices.
“If you look at USDA reports, all around us in the corn belt, states are making decent sales from organic agriculture except for Indiana,” Roland Wilhelm, assistant professor of soil microbiology in Purdue’s Department of Agronomy, said.
Source : purdue.edu