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Indiana Farm Bureau wants to know what’s the economic impact of farmland

The President of the Indiana Farm Bureau says work is underway to study the economic impact of farmland and what its potential loss means for rural areas.

Randy Kron tells Brownfield their organization is working with industry partners and researchers to better understand what agriculture provides to communities.

“Before you start developing other things, whether it’s solar or warehouses, you need to know where’s the benchmark, what kind of economic impact is that farmland?” he says.

Kron says the results could help influence land use decisions moving forward.

“Hopefully we can break it down by county to even know because some of these solar projects seem to be focused on certain counties and taking a lot of land out of production,” he says.

This year the Indiana legislature passed a bill to take inventory of farmland loss over the past decade and the causes.  Kron says data from both efforts will put real numbers to the issues and be used to support future policy.

Brownfield interviewed Kron during this week’s Indiana Farm Bureau State Convention.