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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

"Indiana Grown" Campaign Aims to Promote Hoosier Products

Courtesy
/
Indiana Dept. of Agriculture

The Indiana Department of Agriculture this week will announce the launch of Indiana Grown, a program promoting products made and produced in the Hoosier State.

The idea of a “Made in Indiana” brand isn’t new.  But state Department of Agriculture Director Ted McKinney says the previous version was underfunded and understaffed and, thus, ineffective. 

McKinney says the new program, Indiana Grown, is much more robust, with funding from the Department of Agriculture – and Hoosiers can already see results.

“Some milk from Fair Oaks Farms into Kroger carries the Indiana Grown label,” McKinney said. “Creighton Brothers, a very reputable hen-laying operation in north and east Indiana, provides a lot of the eggs to Marsh.”

Indiana Grown project manager David King says the program can help farmers, producers, and consumers – because, as he puts it, the state needs Indiana people buying Indiana products.

“It’s not a very good thing when 90 percent of the food we eat in Indiana comes from some other state,” King said.

The state has already secured more than one hundred Indiana Grown members and partners ahead of its July 7th launch.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.