Can you find the two Ohio Farmers Union members in this video asking Ohio State to commit to serving more local, “real” food?
Hint 1: Creamery
Hint 2: It’s a _______, it’s a plane …
State Rep. Brian Hill, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur OFU Legislators of the Year
State Rep. Brian Hill, OFU Convention, January 2016. Photo by: Ron Sylvester
COLUMBUS – At a luncheon closing the 82nd Annual Ohio Farmers Union Convention, the 4,000-member farm organization named State Rep. Brian Hill, R-Zanesville, and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, their Legislators of the Year.
Each year OFU makes the awards honoring state or federal legislators who have championed independent family agriculture in their legislative career.
Hill is chairman of the Ohio House Agriculture committee, a working farmer, former Muskingum County Commissioner and is serving in his second term in the Ohio House.
Kaptur has served in Congress since 1982 and is a perennial winner of the National Farmers Union Golden Triangle Award. The Golden Triangle is awarded based on a Congress member’s advocacy for family farm issues and alignment with NFU priorities.
“Marcy Kaptur has been tireless in her advocacy for common sense consumer labeling – particularly mandatory country of origin labels for beef, pork and poultry,” said OFU President Joe Logan. “Marcy has also been strongly in favor of fair trade deals and stood with the Farmers Union against currency manipulation and so-called fast-track trade authority.”
Kaptur is working against the Trans-Pacific Partnership pending in Congress and being considered under “fast-track.”
“Brian Hill has been especially good for Ohio’s family farmers in fixing the problems with CAUV,” Logan said. “Even before Rep. Hill was chairman he stood with OFU members in seeking fair and measured reforms in farmland real estate taxes.”
Logan said he credits Hill for the currently pending H.B. 398 which would make improvements to the Current Agricultural Use Valuation formula and take some of the wild fluctuations out of the tax rates farmers are paying on their farmland in production.
Logan also said that as chairman of the House Ag Committee Hill has maintained an open-door policy for all sides on issues affecting Ohio agriculture.
“It should also be noted that Rep. Hill is one of the very few members of the legislature who is a working farmer. He gets us, he understands our issues,” Logan said.
Sen. Sherrod Brown to Help Ohio Farmers Union Kick Off 82nd Convention
Ohio’s senior U.S. Senator and U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee member, Sherrod Brown, will deliver remarks to the 82nd Annual Ohio Farmers Union Convention on Friday.
Brown is expected to meet and greet OFU members around 11:45 on the convention floor and he’ll speak at 12:20.
“Sherrod Brown has been a friend to Ohio family farmers through thick and thin,” said Ron Sylvester, OFU spokesman.
“His command of agricultural issues and help in our fights in Washington for items like a fair Farm Bill and Country of Origin Labeling are things for which our members appreciate Senator Brown,” Sylvester said.
This being OFU Convention time, the family farm organization that boasts 4,000 members statewide will also discuss and vote on public policy positions for 2016.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson will also attend OFU’s convention and address the gathering on national policy issues.
2016 Joseph Fichter Scholarship Essay Contest
The “Benefits and Downsides of International Trade Agreements” is the topic for the annual Joseph Fichter Scholarship Essay Contest.
First-place will receive $750 and the runner-up will receive $250 toward their post-secondary education expenses.
Any member of the Ohio Farmers Union who is a high school senior is eligible to participate.
In order to participate, please download the contest rules and entry form.
All entries must be postmarked by December 31, 2015.
The Thanksgiving Farmer’s Share
The Ohio Farmers Union today released a Thanksgiving version of the organization’s popular Farmer’s Share graphic which shows farmers and ranchers receive only about 19 cents of every dollar spent by consumers on their Thanksgiving dinners.
“We want to remind Ohioans to be thankful for farmers and remind them that 80 percent of what they pay for food at the grocery are costs added after grain, meat and produce leaves the family farm,” said OFU President Joe Logan.
Click Here to View the 2015 Thanksgiving Farmer’s Share
Logan said these costs include processing, marketing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
“These added costs take a bite out of all of our family budgets – consumers and farmers alike – at Thanksgiving and throughout the year,” Logan said.
“As our American food system has gotten more reliant on industrial agriculture and a relative few huge companies dominating grain and meat markets, family farmers are as squeezed as many American consumers by the cost of what’s on our dinner plates,” Logan said.
The Farmer’s Share graphic was created and is maintained by the National Farmers Union.
Among some of the more startling statistics in the Thanksgiving Farmers Share:
- Wheat farmers receive just 7 cents from the $3.39 consumers spend on a 15-ounce box of stuffing.
- Turkey farmers net just over half (93 cents) of the retail value for a pound of turkey ($1.78).
- Pumpkin farmers receive 25 cents, a mere 6.4 percent, of the $3.89 spent for canned pumpkin pie mix.
The Farmers Share is based on calculations derived from the monthly Agriculture Prices report produced by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and compared to price points of common grocery food items at a Safeway supermarket.
“The Farmers Share is about so much more than just family farmers – we’re all part of a system,” Logan said.
Logan said recent events such as further international consolidation of the American beef, pork and poultry markets as well as uneven trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership do not bode well in the long run for American consumers or family farmers.
“It’s been a long time since the Farmers Share has actually moved in the direction of the farmer. It’s our belief that consolidation of agricultural markets has not delivered for consumers in terms of price, food safety or quality.”
[GRAPHIC] Thanksgiving Farmer’s Share
Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Info Updated
It’s open enrollment time once again for ACA health care coverage and the Ohio Farmers Union can help you navigate the health insurance marketplace. Use this form to get started with Dave Shindollar who will help you qualify for subsidies and find you the best value for your health and your money! Open enrollment ends January 31, 2015.
Ohio BWC Sets Date for Safety Congress-Expo
The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation has set the date and place for the 2016 Ohio Safety Congress & Expo.
The event will be held March 9-11 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio. BWC has informed employers through a save the date email. Registration is not yet available, however the agency said registration will be available in January.
Admission will be free.
UPDATE: Crop Insurance Payments Will Be Restored in Future Bill
A budget agreement negotiated between the White House and congressional leaders that was passed by the House yesterday did contain $3 billion in cuts to the federal subsidies for the nation’s crop insurance program, but, House ag interests said that the cuts will be rolled back in a future spending bill.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson voiced cautious optimism Wednesday night about the deal and said the agreement was led by the House Agriculture Committee.
“No one involved in agriculture was consulted when the budget was being negotiated,” said Johnson. “It’s outrageous to think that the agriculture committees were completely left in the dark, but we are thankful that the committee, its members, and other members of Congress stood up for a program that is critical to family farmers.”
Johnson noted that the 2014 Farm Bill provided $24 billion in savings, which accompanies the $12 billion in savings that was part of the 2011 renegotiation of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). “While the rest of Congress has been paralyzed, the agriculture committees delivered savings in the name of deficit reduction,” he said. “It would be shameful to punish agriculture for doing its job over the last several years.”
Absent this deal, the budget would require $3 billion in cuts to the reimbursement rates between the government and the companies that sell and administer the crop insurance program. The cut, from 14 percent to 8.9 percent, is far deeper than the 12 percent of previous proposals. However, the average rate of return for participating companies has been less than 4 percent, causing many crop insurance companies to exit the sector.
“Caps already exist on administrative and operating costs for crop insurance companies, and producers pay an estimated $4 billion into this program annually. It’s time for Congress to realize that crop insurance is not a piggy bank,” noted Johnson. “We are thankful for our allies in the House and the leadership of Chairman Conaway and Ranking Member Peterson.”
“We now call on the Senate leadership to follow the House’s lead and reject cuts to crop insurance,” he said.
Budget Deal Contains Horrible Crop Insurance Provision
One would think that if Congress were to take $3 billion out of the private sector crop insurance delivery system there would be hearings and lots of work done on the economics of the proposal by both sides of the issue.
You would be wrong to think that, because tomorrow there will be a vote in the U.S. House to accept a budget deal which contains what amounts to a $3 billion cut in the crop insurance subsidies that are so critical to the U.S. farm safety net.
According to the legislative shop at the National Farmers Union, this bit of business is such a surprise that both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are lining up to oppose the entire budget deal if it contains this cut. NFU staff are all hands on deck canvassing members of Congress and senators all day today to oppose the deal.
The national budget can’t be balanced on the backs of farmers. While it is true that this money will come out of the insurance industry, it’s also true that there will be a trickle down effect in rural America. The compromises that took so many years to forge in the last Farm Bill set up what is essentially a public-private system behind the safety net. It can’t just be torn down in a day.
Here’s a quote from an email I received today from a staffer at NFU that sums it up nicely:
While this is a direct hit to crop insurance companies, there can be no doubt about the trickledown effect onto the countryside. Consolidation is already occurring in the crop insurance industry, and this will only speed up that consolidation, which will mean fewer choices and a less efficient private sector delivery system for producers.
And, if you think that farmers haven’t already done their piece for the national budget, consider the two charts pictured here. They speak for themselves.
Call your member of Congress and both of our U.S. Senators – Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman. You may call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your representative or one of the senators. Tell them to vote NO on the budget deal if it contains the cut to the Private Sector Delivery System to Crop Insurance.
This is horrible policy and should be a poison pill to kill the whole deal.
Here’s more information:
