ROLLING PRAIRE – In the average bottle of ketchup you’ll find tomato concentrate, vinegar and some herbs.
Behind the average bottle of ketchup you’ll find farmers like Jim Paarlburg, who grow tomatoes in places like Rolling Prairie, and feel hindered by places like Washington, D.C.

But a new part of the intricate (and controversial) federal Farm Bill that was made law this week should make it easier for Paarlsburg to fulfill his contracts.

Without making your head explode, it boils down to this: Under the 2002 Farm Bill, restrictions were placed on fruit and vegetable farms in the upper Midwest.

Farmers who had a record as a vegetable grower on file with the federal government could continue to do so, but for everyone else it was extraordinarily hard to find the acreage to plant, Paarlburg said. His family grows 320 acres of tomatoes on a 2,000 acre farm just south of Rolling Prairie, and expanding that crop has been difficult because of the law, he said.

But under a measure known as Farm Flex, the federal government will allow 9,000 acres for Indiana farmers to grow fruits and vegetables. In other words, farmers without any acres of vegetable in their past have a big pool to draw from.

Paarlsburg supplies tomatoes to Elwood-based Red Gold Inc., which is best known for its ketchup.
Fruit and vegetable farmers didn’t have a big problem until the government included soybeans as a subsidized crop in 2002, said Steve Smith, director of agriculture for Red Gold.

“You were prohibited from growing fruits and vegetables on lands that were in the farm program,” Smith said. “And every acre in this county, well, probably 99 percent of the acres in this county, are in the farm program. “ U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Granger, was among those pushing for the Farm Flex program.

“Our congressional district, especially Cass County, has almost become the hub of this Farm Flex need,” he said. “This is something that’s not only great for LaPorte and other northern counties, but the southern counties as well.”

And getting Flex Farm added – with California’s congressional delegation opposing it – is a political victory for the freshman congressman, said John Newsom, regional manager of the Farm Bureau.

“California has a lot of clout,” Newsom said. “How was he able to get that provision put in there, it’s just amazing.”

Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., also championed the farm flex program in the Senate, said Mark Hayes, a spokesperson for Lugar. That’s notable because Lugar objected to the overall $288 billion Farm Bill, voting no on the final measure and voting to sustain a presidential veto that was overridden by Congress this week.

Among the issues targeted by critics are subsidies to farmers. Opponents of the Farm Bill say the subsidies are wasteful, and often farmers who don’t need them.

While the Farm Bill contains many “worthwhile policies,” it doesn’t control federal subsidies to farmers enough, Lugar said in a statement issued May 14th.

About $20 billion in direct payments to farmers are reduced roughly 2 percent in the new bill – an amount Lugar called “miniscule”.

“While it is true that subsidies are only part of the overall bill, Congress should not accept these outmoded policies in order to move along other priorities,” he said in the statement.