Stay Informed

Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron took the opportunity offered by a Q&A session during the recent convention to look back on Farm Bureau’s 2017 successes and on what the membership and leadership should be focused on in 2018.

During his Dec. 8 “fireside chat,” moderated by radio personality Dave Russell, Kron focused much of his discussion on the recent successes of membership.

“I am proud of the number of priorities we were able to achieve this year, but what I am most proud of is the engagement of our members this past legislative session,” said Kron. “We had nearly 600 members show up at the Statehouse to talk with their legislators about everything from road funding to broadband to annexation. We also had more than 1,900 emails distributed from our members to their legislators during session.”

A main focus of INFB’s strategic plan is to create and promote a positive image of agriculture.

“Over the past year we’ve been working with the counties to make sure they have the skills they need to help tell the story,” explained Kron.

Growing membership in a consistent and sustainable way also is a major priority in the strategic plan.

“We need to continue to focus on how we bring farmers of all kinds – young people, husbands and wives – to the table and how we can engage the next generation of Farm Bureau leaders,” said Kron. “This year we are going to take a solid look at all of our programs to determine if they are serving our members in the right way. Are these the programs our members want? How are we positioning our organization to cultivate new leaders?”

Kron also discussed the importance of diversity in INFB’s membership and leadership.

“It’s about making sure we make the tent bigger,” said Kron. “We need younger as well as more experienced farmers and all kinds of agribusiness professionals at the table in order to make our best policy decisions.”