Indiana is home to 6.97 million Hoosiers, and according to a study done by Feeding America in 2023, 1 in every 7 Hoosiers faces food insecurity, and 1 in every 5 children is food insecure. That is around 1 million people and 290,000 adults. Food insecurity is when a person or household faces barriers to accessing food. For example, when someone lives in an area where they don’t have access to a grocery store and they must choose between paying bills and purchasing groceries, or they don’t have the transportation to reach a grocery store, they are food insecure. Large portions of Indiana’s land are used for farming with cornfields, soybeans and dairy farms — yet much of the food grown in Indiana leaves the state. With so many Hoosiers facing barriers to accessing food, many turn to cheaper foods, which can be non-nutritious.
According to a 2019 report by Purdue educator Tanya Hall, 63% of the state’s land is taken up by farmland, or around 14.7 million acres of land. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, in 2019, Indiana exported $1.5 billion of soybeans, $543 million of corn and $504 million of grain. The amount Indiana has exported has increased each year since then. In 2023, Indiana exported around $2 billion of soybeans, $946 million of corn and $713 million of grain.
Since 2019, Indiana has increased its agricultural exports year-over-year, while according to Feeding America, food insecurity has increased from 12.4% in 2019 to 15.1% in 2023. Similarly, the average cost of a meal in Indiana in 2019 was $2.74, increasing by 46 cents since then to $3.20 in 2023. From 2019-2023, Indiana consistently ranked as the 24th largest exporter of fresh produce in the country, exporting around $2-4 million each year, with a large portion of Indiana’s produce being grown in greenhouses…