by Joe Logan

President, Ohio Farmers Union

Northeastern Ohio winters are notoriously gloomy. In a normal year, only 32% of the total available sunlight manages to pierce the cloud layers that roll south from Lake Erie during the late fall and early winter months.  It’s rare to see a sunrise this time of the year, but December 20, 2016 has been a pleasant exception to that rule. I’m always surprised at how far south it has migrated and how impotent its rays have become. That is especially true today, as it has reached its most southerly path. Despite this season’s customary gloom, I have always found encouragement in the fact that following the winter solstice, days will begin to progressively lengthen, in their inexorable march toward spring.

Each season carries a similarity to that of the prior year, as well as its own individual signature. December of 2016 carries on the tradition of marking a rather dramatic departure from the warmer autumn temperatures, and true to the variety that is inherent in nature, this year shows a distinctly chilly identity of its own.

Our summer and autumn have been quite warm this year. In fact most months in 2016 have established records for the highest average global temperatures ever recorded. The undeniable accumulation of data clearly demonstrate to anyone with even a slightly open mind, that climate change is happening and that humankind will need to be addressing the causes and adapting our behavior. The sooner we acknowledge that and set ourselves to the task, the better it will be for all of us.

Adaptation will not be a linear process, as natural systems are notoriously dynamic. We cannot simply crank up our air conditioners to accommodate to a warming planet. Climate scientists have long been warning us to be prepared for a wide variety of weather conditions, including an extreme warmth in summer, extreme cold in winter seasons and extreme weather events, including intense storms in all seasons.

 Even here in Northern Ohio, a white Christmas is a bit of a statistical rarity. This year, however, it is pretty well locked in, as we are in the midst of what weather forecasters have dubbed a “polar vortex”, -a protracted period of extremely cold temperatures characterized by an abnormal intrusion of frigid arctic air plunging into temperate latitudes.  

The jet stream is a well-known fixture in climate dynamics. It is a reasonably consistent, stream of air that circles the globe at velocities of around 250 MPH, keeping polar air corralled in the arctic regions and acting as a barrier between cold arctic air and warmer temperate air. The polar vortex represents a distortion or weakening of the normally predictable jet stream, allowing massive volumes of polar air to escape containment by the jet stream and invade temperate regions.

Polar vortices are not only uncomfortable, they are dangerous, with extreme cold temperatures, ice and snow storms threatening livestock and causing significant property damage. Historically, such phenomena have been rare, but in recent years, they seem to have become more of a regular occurrence.

[Read more…]

The Ohio Farmers Union expressed profound disappointment when legislation to help correct the outlandish and unfair increases in farmland property taxes died in the Ohio General Assembly last week.

“While some committee chairmen and rural legislators went to bat for the CAUV bills pending in the House and Senate during lame duck, ultimately leadership in both Houses killed our efforts at reform,” said Ron Sylvester of OFU.

OFU CAUV expert and attorney Ted Finnarn said, “Many farmland owners have suffered property tax increases between 300% and 800% during the past few years.”

CAUV, or Current Agricultural Use Valuation, is the complex formula and system for taxing farmland in Ohio.
 
According to Finnarn, one of the main reasons that CAUV values have escalated is due to the very low interest-capitalization rate used in the formula, which has been affected by the Federal Reserves’ unprecedented low interest monetary policy the last few years. The lower the interest rate is, the higher the CAUV values are.

SB 246 and its companion Bill HB398 would have moderated increases in property taxed by excluding certain non-agricultural factors, such as actions of the Federal Reserve. The legislation would have also corrected a problem with land involved in conservation practices.

Currently, CAUV tax rates assume that property is being used for crop production. The proposed legislation would have allowed these acres to be valued at a lower minimum value. OFU had given testimony by Finnarn and supported both bills.
 
“What really killed the legislation at the last minute was a letter and material from the ‘schools’ lobby dated November 28, 2016, opposing the bills,” Finnarn said.

This letter was authored by the Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA), the Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) and the Ohio School Board Association (OSBA). They indicated that if CAUV values were corrected and moderated to some extent, then residential property taxes would increase and some non-rural school districts might receive less state funding.

“These letters ignored the fact that there has been a massive shifting of the tax burden to farm and woodland owners over the last few years with the higher CAUV values. Since the schools receive more funds locally from rural taxpayers and less from the state, we are right back where we were over 40 years ago before we had CAUV,” Finnarn said.

“Once again, we have an over-reliance on local property taxes to fund our schools,” said Finnarn.  “And, we know this is unconstitutional under both our Ohio and Federal Constitution.”

“Unless changes are made very soon, a school funding crisis is coming where rural school districts will not be able to pass their tax levies –  even the renewals,” Finnarn added.

“The Ohio Farmers Union is open to discussing these major changes in distribution of Ohio’s tax burden, but with today’s low commodity prices, farmers cannot absorb this massive and unfair shift in their share of the tax burden. Essentially, the state has balanced its budget on the backs of farmers,” Finnarn said.

Sylvester said that OFU has been working on this issue “since at least 2011.”

Finnarn and OFU President Joe Logan have held information events around rural Ohio, petitions have been sent to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Finnarn has also advocated through his seat on the Ohio Dept. of Taxation’s Agricultural Advisory board.

“We’ll work for good and fair policy during the budget next year, and if that fails we’ll ask legislators for stand-alone bills once again,” Sylvester said.

*Download Convention Registration Here*

We are just weeks away from the Ohio Farmers Union 83^rd Annual State Convention!

Our convention will be held in Columbus at the Airport Marriott. The convention begins at 1 p.m., Friday, January 27 and will conclude with a luncheon on Saturday, January 28.

While we are still finalizing the roster of presenters, we will be hearing from Director of the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture David Daniels and Fred Yoder of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Agricultural Advisory Board. Stay tuned because we are adding to the program.

Just as importantly, we will of course be setting OFU’s policy priorities for 2017 as well as holding the annual by-laws committee hearing and holding our annual OFU Farm-PAC event on Friday evening before the banquet.

The Airport Marriott is located at 1375 N. Cassady Ave. in Columbus.  A block of rooms are being reserved for OFU until January 10, 2017. Rooms this year are $132.72 per night and reservations may be made by calling 1-800-491-5717 – mention Ohio Farmers Union when you call to reserve your room.

All OFU members are welcome and encouraged to attend the convention. To qualify for voting privileges, convention delegates must be registered by 4 p.m. on Friday, January 27.

Convention registration is now open and costs $75 per attendee. The Friday banquet and Saturday luncheon are included in your cost of registration. Download the convention registration form here.

Checks should be made payable to Ohio Farmers Union and completed registration forms should be sent to: Ohio Farmers Union, P.O. Box 363, Ottawa, Ohio 45875.

Please contact the OFU state office at 800-321-3671 with any questions. We look forward to seeing you at the convention!

Consumers’ holiday food costs have declined, but farmers still receive less than 20 percent of the food dollar, according to the annual Thanksgiving edition of the National Farmers Union (NFU) Farmer’s Share publication. The popular Thanksgiving Farmer’s Share compares the retail food price of traditional holiday dinner items to the amount the farmer receives for each item.

“It’s important to understand the difference between the price consumers pay for food at the grocery store or restaurant and the commodity prices farmers are paid for their products. Just recently food costs started to drop, but farm and ranch families have been plagued by low commodity prices for nearly three years,” said Roger Johnson, president of NFU. “Comparatively, the costs associated with the rest of the supply chain have a more pronounced effect on consumers’ food prices.”

On average, farmers receive 17.4 cents of every food dollar consumers spend, while more than 80 percent of food costs cover marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing. For the 15 items NFU tracks for the Thanksgiving version, farmers received 19.4 cents of the retail food dollar.

Turkey growers, who raise the staple Thanksgiving dish, receive about 89 cents per pound retailing at $1.59. Wheat farmers averaged a meager 4 cents on 12 dinner rolls that retail for $3.29. And dairy producers received only $1.44 for the $4.49 gallon of fat free milk.

Thanksgiving presents an opportunity to raise awareness about food production, including misconceptions about food costs, Johnson explained. “Farmers and ranchers play the most valuable role in actually producing the food that is served at holiday dinners, yet they make just pennies on the dollar for their products.”

The Farmers’ Share is based on calculations derived from the monthly Agriculture Prices report produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, and compared to price points of common grocery food items at Safeway supermarket.

The Thanksgiving Farmers’ Share can be viewed and downloaded here.

from the National Farmers Union

Recognizing the importance of fostering conservation and sustainability practices, National Farmers Union (NFU) is pleased by yesterday’s introduction of bipartisan legislation that would ease burdensome requirements for landowners participating in voluntary U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs.

 The “Improving Access to Farm Conservation Act of 2016” (S.3288) was introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.).

 “Improving conservation practices in agriculture production benefits family farmers, ranchers and rural communities. USDA conservation programs encourage producers to implement sustainable practices in their operations, and we applaud any effort to incentivize taking part in these programs by removing restrictive regulatory barriers that might discourage participation,” said NFU President Roger Johnson.

 Similar to the bill’s counterpart introduced earlier this year in the U.S. House of Representatives, S.3288 would exempt recipients of USDA conservation assistance from needing to register with the System for Award Management (SAM) and obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number – a requirement in order to receive financial assistance from federal agencies.

 The legislation will help “remove government red tape that is standing between small and beginning farmers and the conservation programs that will help protect their farmland and the environments within their communities,” Sen. Klobuchar explained in a statementyesterday.

 “NFU looks forward to working with both the Senate and House to move this legislation forward,” Johnson concluded.