We’ve all heard that Indiana is a very “business friendly” state. According to the Indiana Destination Development Corporation, Indiana is ranked the fifth-best state in the nation for business and first in the Midwest.
AgriNovus Indiana is a non-profit organization working to make Indiana the global epicenter of agbioscience innovation.
“We’re seeing engagement across Indiana’s agbioscience economy,” says AgriNovus President & CEO Mitch Frazier. “From food to animal health to plant science, to our friends in ag tech, to production ag- that whole ecosystem is a $58 billion economy. It grew more than $6 billion in the 36-month period from 2019 to 2021. And we can’t look at that growth without acknowledging that only 14 of those months weren’t impacted by the pandemic.”
Frazier says their strategy of collaborating with leaders of industry, higher education, and philanthropy is working, and he expects the agbioscience economy to grow even more.
“6 billion reasons why it’s working. We have evidence of it. I think as we look to the future, where we’re going to see growth- animal health. Animal health is now the fastest growing category of Indiana’s agbioscience economy over the last decade. We’ve seen food become a just really incredible growth engine, and plant science and crop protection now with Corteva’s global headquarters being here. A lot of energy around that. And as you know, we’ve seen tremendous growth in ag tech. So, I see growth across the portfolio.”
Frazier adds that production agriculture in Indiana is the cornerstone of the success they’ve seen.
“It’s really important for farmers, for producers, to really understand this economy requires them. This economy is built to serve production agriculture. Without production agriculture, we can’t focus on animal health. We can’t focus on plant science. We can’t focus on value added food and nutrition.”
Hear the full HAT interview with Frazier below where he discusses more of why Indiana is becoming the hub for the agbioscience sector in the United States.
