MONON, Ind. (WRTV) – Farming often feels like less of a business for Aleta Clark and more of an expensive hobby.
It’s only gotten more expensive as the war with Iran fuels record-high gas prices.
“I think it's probably the toughest it's ever been,” Clark said.
She’s the fourth generation to run Greenbrook Farms, which stretches across 1,200 acres in White County. Right now, it’s planting season. But watching her nephew lay seed for the next corn crop, Clark said she doesn’t expect to make a profit on the next harvest.
“We’ll be lucky to pay our operator's loan,” Clark said.
The average cost for a gallon of diesel in Indiana reached $6.16 on Thursday, according to AAA, beating the state’s record high set in 2022. That’s $2.60 higher than the average one year ago.
As gas prices spiked, Clark said her typical $ 2,000-per-month fuel bill for tractors and other equipment ballooned to $8,000 in April. The Chicago Board of Trade sets the price of crops, so farms like Greenbrook can’t simply raise their price to match costs.
Clark worries that many Hoosier farms can't stay afloat. “We’re not making any money. We're lucky if we break even. A lot of people aren’t even breaking even."
According to the Indiana Farm Bureau, the number of Indiana farms filing for bankruptcy went from zero in 2024 to nine in 2025. Through the first quarter of 2026, there have already been five.
“I think by the time spring of '27 comes around, there will be a lot of guys that aren't farming anymore,” Clark said.
Greenbrook Farms saw a small, $5,000 profit in 2025, which Clark said was due to a U.S. Department of Agriculture payment.
Rather than relying on farming as a real source of income, Clark said it feels like “most of us are just farming to farm."
Clark doesn’t know if she can justify the cost of next year’s crop. But to her, losing the family farm would be more than losing an expensive hobby; it’d be losing a part of her family’s legacy.
“It’s the way we were raised, it's what we know,” Clark said. “It’s who we are, and I feel like if we don't farm, we all lose a part of our identity."
