[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 16 (Thursday, February 26, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1128-S1129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT

 Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate a group 
of young Indiana students who have shown great educative achievement. I 
would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues the winners of 
the 1997-1998 Eighth Grade Youth Essay Contest which I sponsored in 
association with the Indiana Farm Bureau and Bank One of Indianapolis. 
These students have displayed strong writing abilities and have proven 
themselves to be outstanding young Hoosier scholars. I submit their 
names for the Congressional Record because they demonstrate the 
capabilities of today's students and are fine representatives of our 
Nation.
  This year, Hoosier students wrote on the theme, ``Hoosier Farmers--
Feeding the World, Protecting the Land.'' Students were encouraged to 
consider and creatively express the role Hoosier farmers play in 
feeding the world's population. I ask to have printed in the Record the 
winning essays of Jamie Ann Boone of Hamilton County and Ben Wicker of 
Rush County. As state winners of the Youth Essay Contest, these two 
outstanding students are being recognized on Friday, February 27, 1998 
during a visit to our Nation's Capitol.
  The essays follow:

        Hoosier Farmers--Feeding the World, Protecting the Land

                   (By Jamie Boone, Hamilton County)

     The Time: Oct. 10, 2025
     The Place: Wayne Township, Hamilton County, Indiana, Planet 
         Earth
     The Farmer: Jamie Ann Boone, Age 41

       All of my crops are being planted and harvested by the use 
     of robotics engineering. Using the latest updated global 
     positioning technology, yield monitors, and variable rate 
     technology I am able to plant, fertilize, water, and harvest 
     my crops from inside my computer control room.
       This type of precision farming has provided farmers of the 
     21st century with an abundant amount of information. We are 
     now able to predict yields and verify soil types, balance 
     nutrient levels, and control weed pressures without even 
     leaving our home.
       Today each farmer feeds himself and 198 other people. 
     Farmers of my parents' day in the 1990's fed 116 people. 
     There are fewer farmers and less farm ground, but due to 
     conservation and technology we are still able to feed the 
     world. No-till practices, resistant seed varieties, lower 
     chemical and insecticide rates that were begun in the 1980's 
     and 1990's have led to the use of all organo-chemicals and 
     new super resistant varieties of 2025.
       Action taken in the 1990's by my parents and their farm 
     neighbors to protect what little agriculture land that was 
     left has provided for me and two other young farmers to farm 
     Hamilton County's ground. This farm group lobbied to 
     protectively zone all remaining tillable acres in 1998 for 
     farm use only. This was necessary because urban sprawl from 
     Indianapolis was rapidly and uncontrollably eating up farm 
     land. In order to provide for the future food and feed needs 
     of the world, something had to be done. My parents got 
     farmers in our area and then across the nation to take 
     similar action to preserve the land.
       Today, in 2025, we ship high oil corn, soybeans, oil and 
     meal, tofu beans, canola for oil, and white and yellow corn 
     in large quantities from less ground than ever before. Our 
     Hoosier products go to China, Russia, Japan, India, 
     Europe, Mexico, Egypt and many other countries. Global 
     communication advances make it possible for me to market 
     many of my products directly to global end users.
       Encouragement from school, teachers, and farm parents kept 
     me involved in agriculture. The reason I'm a farmer today is 
     because of the clubs, 4-H, and FFA activities I got involved 
     in when I was younger. Watching and them helping my parents 
     take care of their ground made me proud to assume their role 
     in feeding the world into the 21st century.

       Hoosier Farmers--Feeding the World, Protecting the Future

                      (By Ben Wicker, Rush County)

       Corn and Soybeans growing side by side in the fields, 
     cattle grazing in green pastures with hog bards in the 
     distance . . . Welcome to Indiana!
       Indiana farmers have been feeding the world for hundreds of 
     years. Early settlers grew only what they needed for their 
     survival. Hoosier farmers have expanded their acres and 
     markets through the years to include domestic and world 
     markets, primarily corn and soybeans.
       The markets of tomorrow demand specialization. Already, 
     many Hoosier farmers are adapting to this change. In 1997, 
     ten percent of all corn acres had a special trait, like 
     resistance to European corn borer or certain herbicides. It 
     is estimated that those numbers will rise to twenty-five 
     percent in 1998, and fifty percent in 2000. Some of these 
     special traits include high oil or white corn for specific 
     food markets. This technology is linked to high yielding 
     hybrids for more food producing ability.
       One of the greatest technological advances for agricultural 
     has been Global Positioning Systems (GPS). GPS ensures proper 
     placement of fertilizers, chemicals, and other crop inputs. 
     Farmers have used this technology in conjunction with a 
     combination of no-till, minimum till, and conventional 
     tillage to provide the best protection for Indiana topsoil. 
     Other conservation practices such as grassed waterways and 
     buffer strips along

[[Page S1129]]

     waterways help reduce soil loss to erosion. Indiana is 
     rapidly becoming urbanized. Around the larger cities, land 
     prices are rising, housing developments are spreading, and 
     farm land is being destroyed by development. Indiana farmers 
     have a responsibility to protect and preserve Indiana's prime 
     farmland.
       The conservation of Indiana's most productive land and the 
     continuation of high yielding traditions are important to the 
     future of Indiana agriculture. If we do not save the land 
     now, how will future generations of Hoosier farmers carry on 
     the tradition of feeding the world?

                        1997-98 District Winners

     District 1: Jennifer Claypool, Rajiv Kumar
     District 2: Brittney Hess, Kit Venderley
     District 3: Tara Wireman, Russell Trudeau
     District 4: Candace Northam, Bradley Rice
     District 5: Kathryn Haselden
     District 6: Jamie Ann Boone, Andrew Twibell
     District 7: Courtney Reynolds, Scott Dugan
     District 8: Mary Jean Word, Ben Wicker
     District 9: Jessie Borden, Matthew Bender
     District 10: Chandra Smith, Dusty Daulton

                         1997-98 County Winners

     Allen: Zachory Veit, Brittney Hess
     Cass: Aaron Tribby, Tara Wireman
     Dearborn: Danny Powell, Elizabeth Sedler
     Delaware: Andrew Twibell, Katherine Riley
     Fayette: Mary Jean Word
     Franklin: Chad Meyer, Kelsey Kaiser
     Hamilton: Luke Nelson, Jamie Ann Boone
     Hancock: Justin Christopher
     Hendricks: Kathryn Haselden
     Jasper: Bryron Courtright, Kara Kohlhagen
     Jay: Justin Knapke, Candace Northam
     Jefferson: Dusty Daulton
     Lake: Mike Dlugokinski, Megan Kabella
     LaPorte: Laurie Marsh
     Marion: Chris Shaw, Rachel Grounds
     Martin: Courtney Reynolds
     Newton: Russell Trudeau, Amanda Chamberlan
     Porter: Rajiv Kumar, Jennifer Claypool
     Posey: Jacob Eisterhold, Ellen Herrenbruck
     Rush: Ben Wicker
     St. Joseph: Keegan Boucek, Megan Bauer
     Spencer: Crystal Foertsch
     Steuben: Kit Venderley, Jamie Brunner
     Sullivan: Scott Dugan, Ash Lynn Thompson
     Vermillion: Ashley Hughes
     Vigo: Amy Jackson
     Wabash: Bradley Rice, Sarah Andersen
     Warrick: Matthew Bender, Jessie Borden
     Washington: Jeremy Givens, Chandra Smith
     Wayne: Christopher Cope Nicholson, Lynn Hamilton
     Wells: John Stauffer, Lindsay Leas
     Whitley: Derek Leininger.

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