Convention

Sen. Sherrod Brown to Help Ohio Farmers Union Kick Off 82nd Convention

January 25, 2016 By Ron Sylvester 1 Comment

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.

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81st OFU Convention Preview

January 26, 2015 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

Here’s the press release sent statewide by the Ohio Farmers earlier today:

Water Quality, Farmland Tax on Deck for Ohio Farmers Union 81st Convention

State Representatives Sheehy, Patterson will be honored on final day of meeting

COLUMBUS – Ohio’s educational and advocacy organization dedicated to family farming will tackle several hot button issues in Ohio during its 81st annual convention in Columbus this Friday.

“We expect 2015 to be an exceptionally important year for Ohio’s farmers in terms of state legislation and Kasich administration tax policies,” said Linda Borton, executive director of the Ohio Farmers Union.

“Farmers in Ohio are facing additional regulation with manure application and they are already feeling the effects of agricultural property taxes increasing by 50 to 300 percent in the past couple of years,” Borton said.

“Those two items – water quality and the broken CAUV formula – will be major points of emphasis for our policy committee,” Borton said.

CAUV, or Current Agricultural Use Valuation, is a state tax formula instituted in the 1970s to help protect Ohio farmland by lowering the property tax bills for farmland. The program is responsible for keeping much of Ohio’s agricultural lands in production as the lower property tax rates do not skew the farmers’ cost of production, especially in areas where rural land is threatened by urban sprawl and suburban development.

Due to changes in commodity markets and the effects of a changing larger economy, over the past two to three years, the formula used by the Ohio Dept. of Taxation for determining a farmer’s CAUV tax value has begun to wildly fluctuate. In many cases across the state, family farmers have seen their farmland property taxes rise by 300 percent or more in a single year.

Borton said that on the water quality front, OFU is expected to adopt policy for 2015 urging the Ohio General Assembly to take a “science-based and targeted” approach to new regulation. During the debate over H.B. 490 in 2014, OFU President Joe Logan and other members asked the Ohio House to limit tighter regulatory schemes to distressed watershed areas such as the Maumee River Basin in northwest Ohio.

“No one wants to see the algae problems we’ve had in Lake Erie and in other waterways,” Borton said.

“The key is for regulation to be fair, fact-based and targeted,” Borton added.

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Lots of News Out of OFU’s 80th Convention

February 5, 2014 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

The Ohio Farmers Union has a new president and rural concerns about the long-term effects of fracking and the disposal of toxic drilling wastewater continue to dominate policy discussions among its membership.

OFU held its 80th annual state convention this past weekend. With 110 delegates attending from the state’s county Farmers Union organizations and several additional non-voting members, the family-farmer and consumer oriented group had its largest convention in several years. Nearly 250 people packed the convention hall for remarks by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, right, speaks to OFU youth delegate Joe Schmitz of Darke County at the 80th OFU Convention.

Brown will get the chance this week to vote once again on the beleaguered, two-year delayed Farm Bill. The U.S. House accepted political compromise last week and approved a final version of the bill. Pending Senate passage later this week, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the measure which will replace most direct payments to farmers with an enhanced system of crop insurance.

“There are several titles in the farm bill, all of them important to this state. You think about rural development, you think about conservation titles, you think about commodities in title one and what we’ve been able to do there, and obviously you think about the nutrition part and all that helps make our state better,” Brown said.

“I’m virtually certain we’ll pass it, and I am virtually certain the president of the United States will sign it,” Brown added.

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NFU Delegates Adopt 2013 Policy Document

March 5, 2013 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The National Farmers Union (NFU) 111th Anniversary Convention adjourned Tuesday afternoon in Springfield, Mass. The four-day event concluded with the delegates considering and adopting the organization’s policy for the next year.

“Farmers Union is truly a grassroots organization, and our policy adoption process is an example of the value of Americans’ right to free speech,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “The policy adopted by the delegates today is what will guide the advocacy work of our organization for the next year.”

Just as we do in Ohio at OFU’s annual convention, NFU also adopted several special orders of business which are topical, “of the moment” policy concerns. They include:

“The voices of family farmers, ranchers and fishermen and women have been heard,” said Johnson. “NFU will continue to work on behalf of the providers of our nation’s feed, fuel, food and fiber. As we head back to Washington, D.C., we have a very clear message to relay to Congress: a five-year farm bill must be completed as soon as possible to provide certainty and protection against multi-year price collapse.”

Delegates adopted policy favoring comprehensive reform of immigration laws in relation to agricultural workers. Existing NFU policy that supports conservation compliance requirements for federal crop insurance premium subsidy eligibility was reaffirmed. The body renewed its support for affordable healthcare, with an emphasis on disease prevention and access to nutritionally sound foods. Policy was put in place to address the challenges that small boat fishermen and women face.

Click here to read or download the entire 2013 NFU Policy document.

Water Quality, Farmland Tax on Deck for Ohio Farmers Union 81st Convention

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