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If you’re involved in the ag industry in Ohio, one of the bookmarks in your favorite browser should be to the Agricultural Law & Taxation blog. It’s a service of OSU Extension and currently curated and written by Peggy Kirk Hall, Asst. Professor, Agricultural & Resource Law at Ohio State.
She recently posted this overview of Ohio’s newest manure regs courtesy of Senate Bill 1 passed earlier this year. Thanks to OSU for this document:
I’m working on a story and our own video coverage from what turned out to be an excellent set of presentations from Dr. Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant; Greg LaBarge, OSU Extension; Todd Hesterman, farmer and NW Ohio Coordinator of Conservation in Action and Adam Rissien from the Ohio Environmental Council. For now, find below the PowerPoint presentations from our presenters and links to media coverage of the event. Thanks to all who attended and to our presenters!
Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council talked to OFU members and organization’s board of directors at the recent summer picnic. Here, he discusses recent events in the western basin of Lake Erie and agriculture’s role in the watershed’s problems:
Ohio Senate Bill 150, the measure which would enact a fertilizer application licensing process in Ohio similar to the pesticide applicators’ program hit a wall in late 2013 due to so-called ‘affirmative defense’ language in the bill.
Bill sponsors Senate Ag Chairman Cliff Hite and Sen. Bob Peterson put the measure on hold until 2014 while issues among stakeholders over the affirmative defense language is sorted out.
Under language in a recent version of the bill, a farmer’s filing of a voluntary nutrient management plan for his or her farm would qualify as an affirmative defense in court should that farm be sued relative to civil nuisance actions. An affirmative defense means that legally certain facts are established on their face by the existence of a nutrient management plan.
At the last hearing of SB 150 in the Senate Agriculture Committee, Peterson noted that one of the amendments for that day – which was eventually agreed to – would strip the affirmative defense language from the bill. He added that it is his intention for a different version of that language to go back into the bill after negotiations with stakeholders.
Lake Erie’s 2011 algal bloom, satellite view.
With Grand Lake St. Mary’s essentially dead, increasingly frequent and enlarged algal blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie and problems of varying degrees in other Ohio bodies of water, the Kasich Administration has passed proposed nutrient management legislation around to several environmental and agricultural organizations in the state.
Comments were requested to be submitted to the directors of the Ohio Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The Ohio Farmers Union submitted comments from President Roger Wise.
“We understand that historically state government has been reluctant to intervene in the business operations of Ohio’s agricultural producers. We are however dealing on another historic level regarding water quality in Ohio when one considers the devastating algal blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie and the de facto death of Grand Lake St. Mary’s,” wrote Wise.
Wise pointed out that OFU has entered into a strategic partnership with the Ohio Environmental Council and is providing high quality farmer education sessions throughout northwest Ohio regarding nutrient management and agriculture’s place in the problems of the Lake Erie Watershed.
“On the other hand, I am compelled to point out that the water quality issues taken up by the proposed legislation are also the responsibility of the several other stakeholders including the City of Detroit, other Lake Erie area municipal water treatment districts, homeowners and lawn treatment professionals,” Wise wrote.
Ohio’s largest family farmer organization is joining a respected environmental advocacy group to educate and hear from northwest Ohio farmers and other agricultural stakeholders on the topic of a cleaner Lake Erie Water basin.
“A healthy Lake Erie is an invaluable economic and natural resource,” said Roger Wise, president of the Ohio Farmers Union.
“All of us know Lake Erie has experienced some incredibly large and harmful algal blooms over the past few years. OFU is joining with the Ohio Environmental Council to put together an event where farmers and others who are dependent upon agriculture can learn and share their views and experience. This is a controversial topic for some in agriculture, but it is one that we need to address as an industry and a local economy,” Wise added.
Specifically, Wise is talking about the blooms of cyanobacteria – often called blue-green algae – that have plagued Lake Erie in recent years. Increasing levels of dissolved phosphorous in the lake’s water have been tied to these pollution events which are not only smelly and unsightly, but can emit toxins dangerous to human and animal health. The Ohio Lake Erie Phosphorous Task Force has said that the sources of the dissolved phosphorous are numerous but list agricultural fertilizers and sewage treatment plants as chief sources. OFU has adopted as one of its public policy priorities this year the promotion of voluntary nutrient pollution measures on Ohio’s farms.
OFU and the OEC will hold a northwest Ohio stakeholder education program on Friday, February 22 at the Hancock County Agricultural Service Center, 7868 County Rd. 140 in Findlay. The program will run from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch will be provided at no cost, but RSVPs are required. To RSVP please contact Linda Borton at 800-321-3671 or lborton@ohfarmersunion.org.
Presenters at the event include:
