An Update From Our President

Rain, Rain, go away, come again…. In July or August!!  The Planting season of 2009 will go down in the history books as one of the slowest and wettest on record.  The planting pace is almost none existent for most all areas east of the Mississippi.  The few dry days that we have had are mostly gray and cold and not too many have been dry enough to dry the ground and few days have been fit for planting as a result. 

So far 2009 has been less than great for nearly all Americans.  The economy isn’t getting better any too fast and the Administration and Congress are not letting a perfectly good panic go to waste in the pace of changes and regulations that are taking place in Washington.  The red ink of deficits seems to flow and flow…The new program ideas and ways to spend taxpayers’ money doesn’t seem to end either.

The most disturbing new development for Agriculture is the “Cap and Trade” regulations being proposed.  While Agriculture does help to tie up carbon from the atmosphere into the soil through our growing crops we also are very energy dependent for the inputs to produce those crops.  We must not forget how much we depend on energy for fuel, fertilizer, electricity to operate our facilities and the fuel to heat them and dry our grain.  Don’t forget that everything that we produce or buy is shipped and that takes energy too.  The most likely energy product to really go up here is electricity.  Indiana has a low cost of electricity because of the abundance of coal that we have and the Cap & Trade will all but drive even clean coal technology out of existence.   

The State legislature couldn’t get a budget finished and so now we have to endure and pay for a special session here in Indiana.  The only positives are that at least for now the property tax caps weren’t passed and there were some Ag friendly bills passed.  For all the details check out the Indiana Farm Bureau site at www.infarmbureau.org.

With all the excitement in Washington and Indianapolis we had to have some here locally here as well!  A botched Juvenile Center vote certainly caused some controversy and the situation may give us some time to evaluate both the economy and the effectiveness of a phased in approach to the problem.

I hope that we all can get to planting soon.  I hope that no matter the weather outside, you know the weather maker and trust in His provision.  I know that I am!

Take Care and Be Safe!

Kevin Underwood
President
Tippecanoe County Farm Bureau, Inc.