Agriculture, government and energy intersect at Ag Policy Summit

COLUMBUS, Ind. — More than 200 people attended the Ag Policy Summit, an annual policy-focused program presented by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and the Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership & Policy Committee.

The theme centered on energy and encompassed everything from the state’s stressed electrical grid to the role of biofuels in Indiana.

“Energy, in one form or another, is something that touches all of our daily lives,” said David Hardin, M&P committee chair. “In ag, we’re not just a consumer of liquid fuels and electricity, but we also help fill the demand for those products.”

Hardin encouraged ISA and ICGA members to be involved with policy discussions about energy.

“We depend on affordable, reliable access to energy,” he said.

Also at the event, state Rep. Beau Baird, R-Greencastle, received the 2026 Friend of Farmer award.

Baird assisted ISA during the 2026 General Assembly with legislation that would continue the state soybean checkoff program if the federal soybean checkoff law was ever eliminated.

Throughout the day, speakers emphasized the intersect between agriculture, government and energy.

Highlights from the panel included:

“I’m just about to finish one term in Congress, but that’s been long enough to become convinced that nearly every major policy debate comes back to the farm. We just don’t always call it that. We call it food security. We call it energy. We call it infrastructure. We call it workforce development. We call it supply chains. We call it national security. Sooner or later, these conversations end up at the farm gate.”

Jefferson Shreve, R-Ind.

U.S. Representative

“Today at this summit, I heard so much optimism, but I also heard opportunity. Following my remarks, I hope farmers have confidence in the things we need to do to improve USDA. We’re actively engaged in improving the things that we need to develop for farmers and ranchers and for U.S. agriculture more broadly. We understand the priorities, and we’re focused on impact.”

Scott Hutchins, chief scientist

U.S. Department of Agriculture

“We want to have good growth for the state of Indiana. We also understand our obligation to ensure affordability and reliability, as we embark on the opportunity to power the needs of new customers, some of which are data centers. We are doing it with affordability, reliability, resiliency, top of mind. We are focused on bridging the gap between our communities and data centers. There’s just so many unknowns about data centers, what it means from an affordability standpoint, a reliability standpoint and an environmental standpoint. All of those questions are reasonable, and they deserve good answers. It’s really going to take forums like (the summit) where you have the utilities, you have policymakers, you have farmers, you have neighbors who are sitting down having the conversation of how we can go about this growth in the state of Indiana in a way that benefits all of us.”

Brandi Davis-Handy, president

AES Indiana

“The ag community is coming together stronger than ever to push on biofuels as a great option, not only for farmers, but for consumers. I hope that farmers and policymakers see that collaboration needs to continue to get stronger. I hope that people are starting to think and continue to leverage this concept that biofuels aren’t just ethanol at a higher blend level in the car — it can be for many different things, and we need to continue to explore and find those.”

Josh Garetson, director of renewable fuels and corporate strategy

John Deere