(Indianapolis, IN) - Extending broadband to rural areas is off to a good start in Indiana, but the need further enhanced by COVID-19 remains extremely high, according to Indiana Farm Bureau, which has made filling coverage gaps its top priority for the 2021 state legislative session.

 

“There are some opportunities out there, but we got to figure out how to maximize them and make it all come together,” said Randy Kron, president of Indiana Farm Bureau.

 

Indiana is spending $100 million to help service providers offset the cost of extending high-speed internet to lightly populated areas without the customer base needed to see a return on the investment. Kron said the state funding is strictly for unserved areas, but there are many pockets without sufficient broadband levels to meet the higher demand brought on by COVID-19. He said Zoom meetings, virtual learning at home, and the use of drones and other technology in agriculture requires higher amounts of broadband many areas don’t have access to.

 

At his farm near Evansville, Kron said he has just enough broadband to participate in the video portion of virtual meetings. The audio portion of virtual meetings is brought in through his phone. “COVID has highlighted how many underserved areas there are across the state,” Kron said.

 

Andy Tauer, Director of Public Policy for Indiana Farm Bureau, said talks are occurring with Purdue University to identify better which areas of the state remain unserved and underserved, which will provide a map to follow for future broadband extensions.

 

“We got members trying to run home businesses, run their farming enterprise, kids trying to do education from home, and they can’t do it all at the same time. That seems to be something we’ve heard multiple times north and south, east and west as a real challenge,” Tauer said.

 

Kron said the governor and leaders at the statehouse have already been made aware of the issue.

 

“There is no easy answer to it, but we’re going to be working on it,” he said.

 

Another legislative priority for INF related to COVID-19 is helping small meat processing plants expand.

 

Many small butcher shops have realized dramatic increases in demand from shortages in the supermarkets caused by consumers stockpiling and large meat processors shutting down temporarily because of outbreaks of the virus. INF will push for state funding to help small processors expand and provide additional inspectors to handle increased capacity. Some of the smaller meat processors were already seeing a need for expansion from the growing popularity of the locally grown foods movement before the pandemic.

 

“That goes hand in hand, really,” Kron said. INF also plans to push the legislature to provide increased flexibility for home-based vendors and marketing of value-added products.

 

Another priority is to improve transparency between the Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing Agency and the Indiana Grain Indemnity Fund and how both organizations work together.

 

Tauer said that’s in response to a couple of elevators going under financially in March and some farmers losing part of the grain stored at those facilities. He said IGBWLA is supposed to discover any financial problems an elevator might be having and come up with solutions before they fail, so the fund doesn’t have to be tapped to help cover losses.

 

INF also wants the legislature to make property tax assessments more uniform statewide because of how they greatly vary by county, especially livestock and dairy farms.

 

“We’re not sure why that is happening because the manual is pretty clear on how they should be done,” Kron said.