A Community Petition for Farmland, Water, Food Independence, American Workers, and Responsible Development

Indiana is being asked to give up more land for large data centers and industrial development. Before we continue down this road, we need to ask what we are gaining - and what we may permanently lose.

OUR FARMLAND DOES MORE THAN GROW FOOD

Healthy farmland absorbs rainfall. Soil, crops, grass, and trees allow water to soak naturally into the ground.

When farmland is replaced with large buildings, rooftops, roads, pavement, concrete, and compacted ground, less water can soak into the soil and more can become surface runoff.

That water still has to go somewhere. It can move toward neighboring fields, drainage ditches, creeks, roads, and low-lying areas. During heavy storms, increased runoff can add to flooding and erosion if drainage and stormwater systems cannot safely handle it.

Good topsoil also cannot simply be replaced overnight. Construction can move, remove, grade, or compact soil. If a facility is removed years later, taking away a building or concrete does not automatically return the land to the same productive farmland it was before.

A company can leave Indiana. The land cannot.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE DATA CENTER IS GONE?

At a recent live streamed public meeting, Indiana representatives discussed data centers potentially having an operating life of roughly 15 years. 

If Indiana changes productive land for facilities that may eventually become outdated, communities deserve answers before construction begins:

Who removes the buildings and concrete? Who restores the soil and drainage? Who pays for cleanup? What financial guarantee protects taxpayers if a company sells the property, closes, or leaves?

WHY AREN'T WE INVESTING THIS HEAVILY IN FARMERS?

Indiana offers major incentives to attract qualifying data-center investment. Our state should show the same urgency toward the people already working Indiana's land and producing our food.

• Protect working farms from unreasonable property-tax increases and consider reasonable agricultural property-tax caps or protections.

• Help young people afford their first farm and keep family farms in agriculture.

• Protect prime farmland, topsoil, drainage, and water resources.

• Give farmers greater independence and a stronger voice regarding the seed they purchase, save, and grow, while recognizing existing patent law.

•Allow Farmers Rights to Process their own crop/ livestock 

• Support public and independently reproducible seed varieties.

• Invest in American manufacturing, skilled trades, Indiana contractors, and local small businesses.

• Keep more employment and economic opportunity in America rather than outsourcing work when it can reasonably be performed here.

FOOD IS INFRASTRUCTURE

We talk constantly about infrastructure, but farmland is infrastructure. Soil is infrastructure. Water isinfrastructure. Food is infrastructure.

Technology changes rapidly. Computers become outdated. Companies and industries change. But 100 years from now, Americans will still need food, clean water, and productive soil. A farm cared for properly can feed generations.

PROTECT THE FOOD SYSTEM WE ALREADY HAVE

Companies are also developing insect-based technologies and products for agriculture, food, and medicine.

All Things Bugs, for example, publicly describes its work as developing sustainable insect-based solutions, technologies, and products for agriculture, food, and medicine.

Innovation itself is not the problem. The larger question is why America would allow traditional farmers to struggle, lose productive farmland to industrial development, face rising costs, and lose control over parts of their own production while also investing in alternatives to traditional agriculture.

Indiana should protect farmer and consumer choice. If insect-derived ingredients become more common in food products, families should receive clear information so they can decide what they want to buy and eat.

Before replacing farmland with concrete, before offering major incentives to technology corporations, and before looking to alternative food systems as an answer to food security, we should protect the farmers who already feed us.

Food security begins with protecting a nation's ability to feed itself.

AMISH AND ENGLISH FAMILIES HAVE A SHARED INTEREST

This is not only a Farmer or Amish issue. Amish and English families may live differently, but we share the same land, water, roads, creeks, and communities. Floodwater does not stop at a property line. Erosion does not care who owns the neighboring farm. The loss of productive farmland affects everyone who eats.

WHAT WE ARE ASKING INDIANA TO DO

• Give stronger protection to productive agricultural land before approving large industrial developments.

• Require strong stormwater, drainage, soil-protection, and flood-risk planning before construction.

• Require clear decommissioning and land-restoration plans, backed by financial guarantees.

• Study agricultural property-tax caps or protections that help working family farms remain affordable.

• Expand opportunities for young and beginning farmers to purchase land.

• Pursue farmer-friendly seed policies and greater access to seed varieties farmers can legally save and reproduce.

• Require transparency about public incentives, infrastructure costs, permanent jobs, water use, and electricity demand for major projects.

• Support American workers, American manufacturing, local contractors, and American agriculture.

• Protect consumer choice and clear information as new food technologies enter the market.

THE ANSWER CAN BE MUCH SIMPLER

We do not have to reject every new technology. But perhaps it is time to stop asking what more we can give large corporations and start asking what we can give back to the people who already make this country work.

Invest in our farmers. Protect our farmland. Protect our water and topsoil. Help young families own farms and homes. Give American farmers greater independence. Train American workers. Build things in America. Create jobs for American families. Keep more American money circulating through American towns and communities.

In short, the answer here is simple: GO BACK TO AMERICAN WAYS.

Go back to our own roots. Go back to investing in our own communities. Go back to protecting the land that feeds us. Go back to supporting our own families. Go back to building opportunities for American workers.

Go back to standing behind the American farmer.

Technology can have a place in America's future. But it should never come at the cost of destroying the very things that made America strong in the first place: our land, our farmers, our workers, our families, and our independence.

Invest in America. Invest in Americans. Protect what we cannot replace.