US Rep. Frank Mrvan plants seeds for discussing ag issues with new advisory council

Energy costs, tariffs and other financial issues are putting the squeeze on farmers, U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan was told Wednesday.

Mrvan, D-Highland, convened his newly created Agriculture Advisory Council in Crown Point to get input from experts in their fields.

“I wanted to have real-life conversations on the fed government and how it’s impacting farming and the ability to produce,” Mrvan said.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China caused China to buy soybeans elsewhere, a major blow to U.S. farmers.

Mrvan said he’s eagerly awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the legality of Trump’s tariffs. “As a member of Congress, I want to create certainty, both on the tariffs and on the trade side,” he said.

The China tariffs “hurt really hard,” said Denise Scarborough, chair of the Indiana Soybean Alliance and ag and commercial lender.

“The profitability, it’s just not there,” she said. “It’s kind of a punch in the gut for row crop farmers.”

“You usually see the light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, there’s hardly a glimmer for what’s going on right now,” Scarborough said.

“How long can you keep lending money year after year?” Porter Farm Bureau President Bob Wichlinski asked her. “What percentage of people can you say I can’t lend to you because the money’s not there?”

“If you watch, there are a significant amount of land sales,” Scarborough replied. Farmers in their 70s are retiring and don’t have a new generation willing to continue the farming tradition.

“Make sure you have a relationship with your lender. You’re going to have a lot of tough conversations going forward,” she said.

Farmers’ high cost of doing business was a common theme in Wednesday’s discussions.

“We just have no control over how we can buy our inputs and have little control over what we sell,” Scarborough said.

“You buy retail but you sell wholesale. That’s something I never put in my mind,” Mrvan said. “There’s a lot to digest about what impacts the cost of farming.”

Like everyone else, farmers are worried about high energy costs.

“Universally, the energy costs are through the roof,” Mrvan said.

Scarborough said her farm has NIPSCO service for natural gas and Kankakee Valley REMC for electricity. KVREMC has demand-sensitive pricing, so rates quadruple from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., the utility’s equivalent of rush hour for demand.

Her husband and the farmhands keep that in mind. “They’re running around every day trying to shut everything down before 3 o’clock,” she said.

Utility polices add to her farm’s costs. Irrigation equipment and grain dryers are used only a few months a year, but the bills continue throughout the year, she said.

“This is ridiculous,” Indiana Farm Bureau District 1 Director Matt Hayden said.

If you’re concerned about the cost of food, Scarborough said, think about the energy costs to produce that product.

Jerry Roedel of Living Earth Farms has an organic operation. He uses solar panels on his farm. “You can take care of a lot of energy with solar,” he said.

The Trump administration has prioritized fossil fuels over renewable energy. A 30% tax credit for installing solar panels expired, Roedel noted.

Mrvan is on the Appropriations Committee and its Energy and Water Subcommittee. Tax incentives for solar and wind power aren’t the only clean energy polices the administration reversed, he said. Mrvan helped Northwest Indiana land a hydrogen hub for BP’s Whiting Refinery, a project to turn waste carbon into hydrogen. “The administration chose to take those tax credits away,” he said.

“Big Oil, Big Energy, won the war and so now we have greater costs,” Mrvan said.

With demand for power growing, especially with data centers proliferating, Mrvan wants to ensure there’s more energy generated to lower costs.

“I think there is an uprising of individuals who cannot tolerate or accept or pay for energy costs,” he said. “The delivery fees are quadrupling what the costs of gas are.”

“It’s the No. 1 issue. Thousands of people are calling us,” Mrvan said.

During the Biden administration, diverse energy sources were prioritized. “These were in place, and they were working, and we have to get back to that,” Mrvan said.

“It is all of these input costs that people don’t consider that are going into these products at the grocery store,” he said.

“There are real-life people suffering from this,” Mrvan said. “The time is now. It is a crisis.”

Hakenah Hulitt, a first-generation farmer, said she wants to see more assistance available for small operations like hers.

“The resources are so far out of reach for what you’re not even eligible for,” she said. Mrvan promised to write to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see if there’s a solution to help smaller operations like hers.

“It is a lot, a lot of paperwork” for small loans for young farmers, especially, Scarborough said.

A line item in the past to help operations like Hulitt Homestead was cancelled about a year ago, Hayden said. The opportunity to get grants to upgrade equipment, donate extra bushels of apples, etc., went away. “I know there was money at one time to help people like that.”

“I feel like for farmers, it’s always a learning curve for what’s out there,” Scarborough said, because federal programs change so often.

Among the federal programs discussed was the H2 visa program for immigrants to work on U.S. farms.

Jody Herr, of Herr Farms, said the program puts Indiana at a $2 per hour competitive disadvantage compared to surrounding states.

Mrvan promised to write to the Department of Labor to see why Indiana’s rate is higher. “It may be very difficult to go back, but we can find out those answers,” he said.

“We want to make sure we don’t have the labor increases year after year,” Herr said.

“There’s another problem,” Haden said. “Where does the government come up with its numbers?”

Consider all the farmland lost to development, yet every year there’s more acreage reported as planted, LaPorte County Farm Bureau President Mark Parkman said.

“Where’s the science coming from that you guys are looking at?” asked Steve Howe, of Howe Farms.

With every change of administration, the USDA makes those decisions, Mrvan said. He promised his staff would look into it.

Herr raises specialty crops. “On our operation, the cost to raise a vegetable crop as compared to a grain crop is about eight times more,” he said.

Howe said cattle prices are up, too. “It’s really 400% higher to buy that animal, that calf, than it was in 2021.”

He doesn’t understand Trump making deals with Argentina to import beef when American farmers are suffering.

“Everything that can help the cattleman out there has happened,” Parkman said. “The cow numbers are the lowest in like 59 years,” with cattlemen having thinned herds because of poor prices. “Basically, it takes three years to get the numbers back, at a minimum,” he said, and that’s if you have the ability to replenish.

Mrvan asked what factors go into deciding whether to invest in more animals.

“You can’t do that,” Parkman said. “You have to wait for them to be born.”

“Cattle is an animal all of its own, figuratively speaking,” he added.

Mrvan said Wednesday’s initial session for the Agriculture Advisory Council was the start of a dialogue. He promised to share information about important legislation affecting the industry so the council can offer input to Congress in time to affect decisions.

Wichlinski called the meeting a good first start. “It’s an important part of our economy, and I don’t think people really realize that.”

“Agriculture: You can’t live without it,” he added.