TERRE HAUTE —
They are counting more than chickens on Indiana farms this month.
The 2010 U.S. census results can affect federal funding reaching Wabash Valley farmers. As a result, top state officials were in Vigo County on Thursday to make sure rural residents take time to fill out their census forms.
“If we fail to measure things, we fail to be able to manage things,” said Joe Kelsay, director of the Indiana Department of Agriculture. He was speaking at Hayhurst Farms in southern Vigo County during a media event Thursday morning.
State and local government officials are urging everyone to fill out and return their 2010 census forms as soon as they arrive. Billions of dollars in federal funding – amounting to about $300 per person – are appropriated annually based on census results, according to officials with the U.S. Census Bureau.
The census “really is a driver on the federal funding,” said Mark Everson, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Administration, who was also at Hayhurst Farms on Thursday.
Filling out the census form takes just a few minutes, said Susan Hayhurst, owner of Hayhurst Farms with her husband, Terry. “It took me less than five minutes for a family of four,” she said.
In 2007, Indiana received $452 million in USDA grants, according to a media release provided by the Indiana Department of Administration. Census results can influence “agricultural planning ranging from helping local county Extension offices deliver needed services to obtaining operational loans for agricultural programs,” the release states.
In addition to federal funding, census results also determine Indiana’s representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and allow emergency responders to allocate resources where they are most needed in the event of a disaster, Everson said.
The first question on the 2010 census form asks, “How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment or mobile home on April 1, 2010?” However, anyone living more than six months of the year in Indiana still needs to “complete the [census] form as a Hoosier” regardless of where he or she is staying on April 1, Everson said.
Jim Accurso, a Census Bureau media specialist in Chicago, agreed that anyone living more than six months in a particular state needs to use that state as his or her state of residence for the census. If you own a second home, you should still fill out the census form mailed to that home, but enter “zero” under number of residents. You should also write “Not usual address” on the second home’s census form so Census Bureau officials will understand why you wrote “zero,” he said.
Census figures show there has been an increase in the past 10 years in the number of Hoosiers working in agriculture, Susan Hayhurst said. That’s mostly because of small farms serving “farmers’ markets” and other niche markets, she said.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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