Stay Informed

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited version of a speech that Jake Smoker, chairman of the State Young Farmers & Ag Professionals Committee, delivered at the 2019 Indiana Farm Bureau convention. 

In January 2013 I got married, and at our reception, an older gentleman named Les Craft came up to me. He farmed and raised cattle a few miles from us, and I’d always respected him.

He said "Jake, you know you won the lottery." I chuckled and said, “I know.” He said, “You don't understand. You married a girl with a full-time job and health insurance. That's the dream.”

I didn't think much more about those words because life was happening too quickly. A few months later, I left my job in Chicago to return to the farm I grew up on to help take over as the fourth generation to do so. Now every penny I earned was going back into the farm. I was thankful for what Les had told me about a wife with a full-time job.

Our daughter, Catherine, was born a few years later. When she arrived into this world, she was black and blue and the cord was double-wrapped around her neck. She spent what seemed like an eternity in the NICU. I was thankful we were at one of the best hospitals in the region. I was thankful I had a wife with health insurance.

But costs for health insurance continue to rise. And every year we have a discussion on what direction we should take next. What will our coverage look like next year? How much will it increase again?

Health care costs are a huge draw on our family farm. I am sure many of you feel the same. All too often I hear stories about people not carrying any health insurance, not because they do not want it but because they cannot afford it. Our membership made it clear: We have to find a better way.

As we use the centennial of this incredible organization to reflect back on the reason we were founded all those years ago, we also look to the future. Our forebearers used this organization to give a voice to the farmer and address the needs and concerns they faced.

They were bold and inspired to advocate for issues at the Statehouse, set up the co-op system, banks and our current insurance company. They did this not because it was easy to do, but because it was the right thing to do.

 We must now take that next step, to be bold and advocate for the next milestone of this outstanding organization. I will be at the Statehouse telling my story. I hope you will be there, too.