A business-friendly culture in government and a willingness by the state’s farmers to voluntarily take steps to protect the environment have served Indiana well when it comes to acknowledging and mitigating the effects of climate change.
That was the message from several state and industry leaders Tuesday in Hendricks County.
Farmers, energy producers, economists and other experts gathered to discuss carbon credits, renewable fuels, sustainability initiatives and other topics pertinent to the agriculture and energy sectors.
“You have to put yourselves out there and lean into the dialogue to make sure your voice is heard,” Sarah Beth Aubrey, founder and CEO of IN-CLIMATE, told more than 100 people at the day-long IN-Climate Summit.
Other speakers noted that certain buzzwords connected to environmental movements have needlessly become politically controversial.
“We’ve learned not to like some of those words — words like sustainability, regeneration,” said Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. “Farmers are motivated to do the right thing, and we keep looking for those opportunities to make a difference.”
While there are broad differences of opinion across the political spectrum when it comes to addressing climate change, the will to do so has become fixed in several sectors of the agriculture and energy industries, Aubrey said. The key, others noted, is doing so in sensible, measured ways.
“Just as climate goals are important, so are the timelines for achieving those goals,” said Belinda Puetz, director of marketing for CountryMark, an oil exploration and production company with a refinery in Mount Vernon. “If those timelines are not well thought out, the impact could be devastating in our communities.”
Lamb praised the state’s farmers for use of cover crops — small grains and other plants that help improve water infiltration and contribute to overall soil health — to help sequester carbon dioxide.
He said a recent ISDA survey showed that cover crops in Indiana sequestered enough CO2 last year to keep 25,000 cars off the road. An estimated 85% of the state’s cover crop acreage, he said, was planted without government assistance.
The state’s farmers largely look at their responsibilities to the environment as common-sense stewardship, Lamb noted.
“God’s given us these resources to take care of. It gets back to taking care of what we’ve been given,” he said. “We want to do the right thing. I think the ag industry understands that and works on that every day.”
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