Throughout many seasons of change, policy, checkoff work is still constant 

By Joe Stoller, Chair of ISA’s Membership and Policy Committee 

Hello to all Indiana farmers. Harvest on our farm in Marshall County has been pretty good. I know of many farmers who are finished or nearly finished harvesting by mid-November. This is ahead of schedule for a typical year. This is a change. 

The only thing that is constant in the world is change. Think about all of the changes that have happened recently. We had the Daylight Savings Time change. We had seasonal changes in the weather. We changed many of our elected officials that we sent to Washington, D.C. or Indianapolis. 

When I first decided to run for a position on the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) board, I wanted to make sure that the money I was paying into the state’s checkoff program was really helping farmers. For those who are not working on the board or with the ISA staff, it can be difficult to understand all that the checkoff does for farmers. 

What I’d like to do is to explain what I’ve learned about the checkoff during my years on the board. I also want to tell you about how ISA’s Membership and Policy Committee (M&P), the state’s soybean policy group, works with state and federal lawmakers to clear the path for checkoff work. 

Everyone who sells a bushel of soybeans in Indiana pays the soybean checkoff. Some of this money goes to the national checkoff program, the United Soybean Board (USB), and the rest stays in the state. The ISA board has decided to invest in many checkoff-related partners that help make our crop more valuable. Some of these partners include the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC), the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC). 

I have personally reviewed many projects that ISA, USB and these other partners take care of on a daily basis. The STC works diligently to make sure that we can efficiently move our crops by road, by rail or by river to our customers. With USAPEEC and USMEF, we boost the value of Indiana soybeans by exporting them as a feedsource through many livestock products. And USSEC has boots on the ground in countries across the world creating a preference for U.S. Soy. 

The committee that I chair, M&P – not funded with checkoff dollars works with state and federal lawmakers to make sure that government programs help the checkoff’s goals. Government projects such as the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program and the Market Access Program (MAP) help our export goals. These programs do not exist without members of M&P lobbying lawmakers. 

Another example is the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which helps keep our inland waterway system healthy and an inexpensive way to ship soybeans. M&P helps with this law, too. 

Join us as we work to boost the value of Indiana soybeans by encouraging legislation that breaks down barriers to success. If you haven’t yet joined M&P, contact ISA Industry Affairs Outreach Manager Khyla Goodman with any questions by email at kgoodman@indianasoybean.com.