Ag Diversity on Display in LaPorte Co.
Published: Friday, October 6, 2023
Indiana's top agriculture official visited LaPorte County last week to "ketchup" with one of Northwest Indiana's top tomato growers.
Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, met with LaPorte County Farm Bureau members at Parker Farms in LaPorte last Thursday. He has been on the job since early March and is still learning about the diversity of Indiana agriculture.
Tomatoes are just one specialty crop grown in northwestern Indiana. The area also boasts seed corn, seed beans, potatoes, mint, onions and several orchards. Parker Farms grows tomatoes for Red Gold.
"The variety of agriculture we have across the state is really something we have to celebrate more," Lamb said.
Driving up last Thursday from his home in Boone County, Lamb said he took note of the vast fields of corn and soybeans, along with several solar farms dotting the landscape. As ISDA director, he wants northern Indiana farmers to know that their contributions to the agricultural economy are appreciated by officials downstate.
"Don't think that you're not noticed up here," he said. "I'm sure you can feel forgotten by the Indianapolis area once in a while. It shouldn't be that way, and don't think that you're not part of it."
Before he became ISDA director earlier this year, Lamb worked on his 10,000-acre family farm with his brother, who now handles the day-to-day operations. The farm raises waxy corn, popcorn, food grade corn and seed beans. In 2019, the farm hosted then-Vice President Mike Pence who was promoting the benefits of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Lamb wasn't there that day; he and his wife were taking their daughter, who was a senior in high school at the time, on a spring break trip to Arizona.
"So, the day that Mike Pence was at our farm, I was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon," he said with a smile. "I didn't have cell service or anything. I was completely disconnected."
Lamb is proud to say that he is the son of a first-generation farmer. His father studied business at Butler University, then served in the Air Force during World War II. He rented his first farm by responding to a newspaper clipping that advertised land for rent.
One of Lamb's first jobs after graduating from Purdue University in 1989 was selling seed for Pioneer. In 1996, he was named the Outstanding Young Farmer of Boone County.
Lamb is married and has four daughters.
Most recently, he served as vice president of the Boone County council—a position he gave up when he was asked by the lieutenant governor to become ISDA director.
Now that he is working for state government, Lamb oversees an agency that runs the state FFA organization, administers soil conservation programs, spearheads agricultural policy, manages the Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing Agency, and leads certain economic development activities, like the Indiana Grown program and hardwoods industry promotions.
After seven months on the job, Lamb said he has gained several new perspectives. One is that farming is a stressful business.
"If you're in the middle of it, you don't see it," he said. "You know it's there, but you don't see it."
He said farmers should give themselves credit for the "incredible things they are doing every day."
A second new perspective is the amount of support that is available to farmers. From Farm Bureau to the various commodity organizations, Indiana is blessed to have many groups that can stand behind farmers when they need help. Lamb said he talks regularly with INFB President Randy Kron, along with several other key ag leaders.
"Almost at every level, we've got really great support people in our state," he said.
Living in central Indiana, Lamb said he once thought the dairy industry was dying. However, since taking over as state agriculture director, he has learned that the dairy industry is very much alive and well. He called it an "unsung hero" in the ag economy.
While Indiana supports roughly half the number of dairy farms it had in 2014, the number of milk cows remains the same, and milk production is higher—thanks to modern technology.
Another bright spot is the hardwoods industry, which generates $10 billion per year in revenue. Of that total, $1.5 billion represents the value of trees harvested annually in Indiana.
Referring to the hardwoods industry, Lamb said, "It's huge. It's really a corn- and soybean-type industry in Indiana, but we don't think of it that way."
The agency he oversees is small compared to other states. However, Lamb said this allows ISDA to serve as an advocate for farmers, rather than being a heavy-handed bureaucracy.
"A lot of times, we can be the in-between between a farmer and the regulatory agency," he said.
During his visit with local Farm Bureau members, Lamb fielded questions relating to solar farms and lost farm ground, water rights, agricultural processing opportunities in Northwest Indiana, H-2A reform and soil sampling.
"Somehow we have to direct those solar fields to areas that aren't as good of soils," said Glen Minich, who serves on the LaPorte County planning board.
Lamb responded by saying that officials should be careful not to take away a landowner's right to sell his land. But he also said counties need to make sure those developments pay their way by generating long-term revenue for local government.
"With every situation, you have to look at it, as a county supervisor or whatever position you're in—is this going to bring us more money over the long haul?" Lamb said, adding that local officials have the right to say no to a zoning change if will hurt the local economy.
Lamb stated that ISDA is currently doing a study of farmland loss in Indiana. He said the results will inform counties about the value of lost farm ground within their respective boundaries and remind them about the economic driver that is already present.
Host farmer Harold Parker added that many solar developers want tax abatements, which takes away an important revenue source for rural counties.
Regarding soil sampling, Lamb said that ISDA and partners are rolling out a free program to increase knowledge and use of soil sampling as a nutrient management practice. The program, titled Indiana's Mississippi River Basin Soil Sampling Program, is open now for applicants (see page 31 of last week's issue).
He added that, currently, 40% of soils in Indiana are not being sampled.
The INFB members were also concerned about a proposal to pump water from the Wabash River in Tippecanoe County to a large development in Boone County, and how that might affect water rights throughout the state.
"LaPorte County is the largest irrigated county in the state of Indiana," said Denise Scarborough, a LaPorte County resident and a director for the Indiana Soybean Alliance. "You were talking about the specialty crops, and that's our bread and butter up in this area. Water is key for us."
Lamb has toured many parts of the state during his brief tenure as ISDA director. However, this was the first time he had seen tomatoes being harvested up-close.
The Parkers grow tomatoes on 160 acres.
Tom Parker oversees the tomato operation for the farm. He said the crop requires a lot of management, including planting, cultivation, spraying for disease and then harvesting.
The farm supplies the processor, Red Gold, with an average of eight semi loads a day during the harvest season. Red Gold has three processing plants throughout the state. At Parker Farms, the harvest is staggered so it provides a steady flow of Roma tomatoes to each plant. Last Thursday, the Parkers picked 11 semi-loads.
As Lamb watched the harvester slice and dice its way through the field, he captured video of the activity.
"It's like loading on the go, except with tomatoes," he said.
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