Stay Informed

Indiana Farm Bureau’s mission statement is, “To protect and enhance the future of agriculture and our communities.”

The goal of this annual report is to demonstrate what INFB did last year to fulfill this mission. Listed below are some of the activities, events and initiatives that INFB, its staff and its members worked on in 2023.

Advocacy

Two hundred members representing 63 county Farm Bureaus traveled to Indianapolis to meet with their legislators during the 2023 session, focusing on four priority topic areas: rural viability, energy, budget and taxes, and food security. Members stayed connected with the Statehouse in other ways, too, including responding to action alerts and tuning in to the Friday legislative updates. The total number of unique participants to the Friday updates was 195.

A specific strategic goal for this year was increasing the number of donors to AgELECT and ELECT, INFB’s political action committees. By the end of the year, the number of unique donors was 409, an increase of more than 25%.

Collegiate Farm Bureau/FFA

Twenty-five students representing the three active Collegiate Farm Bureau chapters at Purdue, Vincennes and Huntington universities participated in INFB’s Collegiate Discussion Meet, which was won by Jaden Maze from Purdue.

INFB also sponsored youth events that included FFA Advocacy Day and the Elite Leadership Luncheon, which recognized local FFA chapters that focus on ag literacy in their communities.

Convention and conferences

• The Agricultural Land Use & Zoning School was presented virtually in February and had 232 participants.
• Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation’s Estate and Succession Planning for the Family Farm workshop was a virtual event presented in June and attended by 410 farmers and attorneys.
• The delegate session was held in August, and 235 farmers and agribusiness professionals from across the state discussed issues that included the importance of local government notices, renewable energy and research.
• The INFB Drainage School was presented virtually and in person in August, with 66 in-person and 109 virtual participants.
• INFB went to Fort Wayne for its annual convention in December, and 639 members attended. Delegates elected 2^nd Vice President Janis Highley to replace Isabella Chism, who had decided not to run for reelection.

Educational outreach efforts

• INFB’s Ag in the Classroom volunteers gave 1,083 presentations in 2023 and reached more than 63,000 students.
• INFB’s 2023 Book of the Year was I LOVE Strawberries, written by Hoosier native Shannon Anderson. Seventy-one counties and other education outlets participated by distributing 1,481 copies of the book.
• More than 650 agriculture and family and consumer science teachers across the state received back-to-school packages.

Health plans

Indiana Farm Bureau Health Plans continued to grow and had 4,159 active plans and covered more than 8,800 lives by the end of 2023.

Indiana Ag Law Foundation

INAgLaw, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization established by INFB in 2005, raised more than $214,000 for the year through donations from county Farm Bureaus, family farms, individuals and agribusinesses. INAgLaw and INFB worked on two high-profile U.S. Supreme Court cases:

• Sackett v. EPA, which involved clarifying which waters the federal government has jurisdiction over as Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS). The court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had gone too far with its enforcement of the Clean Water Act. INAgLaw and INFB participated in the case by filing an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief.

• The challenge to California’s Proposition 12, which establishes animal welfare requirements that producers must satisfy to have their product sold in the state of California. Both INFB and INAgLaw joined other state Farm Bureaus and ag groups by filing an amicus brief in this case, but the court eventually upheld the controversial measure.

INAgLaw also was engaged in two significant Indiana cases involving government action and the flooding of farmland. The Birge case dealt with the Montgomery County’s construction of a catch basin that periodically flooded adjacent farmland. The Houin case (Marshall County) dealt with the Department of Natural Resource’s failure to maintain a lake level as required by a longstanding court order. The Indiana Supreme Court established the precedent that temporary but inevitably recurring flooding causing significant harm can be a compensable taking. This is a favorable holding for Indiana landowners.

Indiana State Fair

• In 2023, INFB continued its focus on youth programs, sponsoring the Exhibitor Experience, the Supreme Drive and showmanship contests. INFB provided prizes to the winners of the supreme champion species, supreme showmanship, champion showmanship division and reserve championship showmanship division contests for all species, as well as smaller prizes to other livestock exhibitors.
• Taste From Indiana Farms, sponsored by the INFB Women’s Leadership Committee, was presented in the new Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion, which opened in 2023. More than 100 volunteers participated during the four-day run, providing food samples and information about Indiana agriculture to 8,600 consumers. The event was made possible partially due to the generosity of several companies: Prairie Farms, Culver Duck, Beasley’s Orchard, Sechler’s Pickles and Albanese Confectionary, as well as the Indiana Sheep Association.

Media outreach/coverage

INFB secured 1,102 news stories in 2023. The most popular topics included the market basket surveys, farm bill, state convention, legislative session, carbon sequestration and women in agriculture. Ninety-eight INFB members representing 46 counties were featured in 397 articles.

Membership

For the eighth consecutive year, INFB ended its membership year with a gain. The final number for 2023 was 270,545 members, which represents a gain of 2,697. Voting membership ended at 67,032 members, a decline of 952 members from the previous year.

Podcasts and webinars

The weekly legislative updates continued through the end of the 2023 legislative session, but from May through December on the first Friday of each month, members were invited to participate in a new webinar series, the First Friday Ag Forum, which featured guest speakers discussing topics ranging from inflation to on-farm hiring to cybersecurity. On average, more than 40 people logged in to each session.

Also new for 2023 was The Breakdown with Indiana Farm Bureau, a monthly podcast that covered topics such as Christmas tree farms, the agbioscience economy and discussions with American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall and Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch. Since its launch in January 2023, the program has garnered more than 115 subscribers and 1,600 downloads.

Publications

In addition to its long-time publications, INFB produced some publications for specialized audiences:

• The Pulse promotes INFB Health Plans to Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance agents and marketing associates.
• The Check-Up is an electronic publication sent to members who have an INFB Health Plan.
• New for 2023 was Fresh Picks, an electronic publication for specialty crop producers. This publication was added in response to feedback received from members during the strategic planning process.

INFB also actively promoted digital editions of My Indiana Home and The Hoosier Farmer. Any member who prefers to receive either of these publications digitally should access the Online Member Profile at www.infb.org, log in to their account and select “My Account.”

Strategic plan

The first year of implementation of the strategic plan ended on Nov. 30, and in that first year, the board of directors focused on the new mission and vision statements and created goals aligned with the four areas of the strategic plan:

• “Working together we will advocate.”
• “Working together we will engage.”
• “Working together we will add value by sharing knowledge.”
• “Working together we will innovate and grow.”

As one of the first steps, INFB pulled together a group of

county leaders to draft the shared values and guiding principles. Those guiding principles are a commitment to how different segments of the organization work together. More on the strategic plan can be found on INFB’s website.

Website, social media

INFB’s social media channels continued to grow in 2023. From January through December, INFB’s Facebook followers increased by 11%, Instagram followers by 9% and LinkedIn by 21%.

New this year was the INFB Photo Contest, which received 325 entries from members across Indiana. First place went to Marie Kohlhagen, Jasper County; second to April Lamb, Kosciusko County; and third to Linsie Middlesworth, Grant County. You can view the winning photos on INFB’s website.

Young Farmers & Ag Professionals

• 2023 YF&AP Conference was held in Noblesville and hosted 198 attendees.
• The YF&AP Discussion Meet, held during INFB’s annual convention, was won by Kylie Wheeler of Henry County.  New to 2023 was the Rising Star Award, won by Rachel Hyde of Hamilton County. The two other major YF&AP award winners in 2023 were Chelsea O’Brien, Spencer County, who won the Excellence in Agriculture Award; and Mark and Jessica Wenning, who won the Achievement Award.