Submitted by Wood County Chapter of the Ohio Farmers Union
The Wood County Chapter of the Ohio Farmers Union (OFU) was represented at the 86th Annual OFU Convention held in Lima, Ohio on Jan. 24-25.
Delegates Paulette Bresler, John Bresler, Chapter Vice-President Larry Askins, Vickie Askins, Chapter Secretary-Treasurer Tom Harrison, and Karen Wood heard Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Dorothy Pelanda give the keynote address on challenges facing Ohio farmers in the upcoming growing season.
Her comments on Governor Mike DeWine’s new H2Ohio Program requirements, created to address phosphorus issues in Lake Erie, were of particular interest to those farming in the watershed. She also laid out the Ohio State Fair’s plans to go “Zero Waste” during the annual state fair and divert fairground trash from the landfill.
Some of the Special Orders of Business approved by the organization’s delegates included:
• A request for the State of Ohio to impose a moratorium on the issuance of new permits for livestock Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in the Maumee Watershed;
• A request for OFU members to support 2020 presidential candidates who consider rural healthcare a priority;
• A call on Ohio legislators for regulation on foreign ownership of Ohio’s agricultural lands; and
• Support of Senator Cory Booker’s “Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Anti-Trust Review Act” to stop monopolistic corporate concentration in the Agricultural industry.
The 2020 OFU Scholarship was given to Emily Schmitz of Darke County. Two OFU scholarships were awarded last year to Elmwood High School’s Evan Frankfather, grandson of delegates Paulette and John Bresler, who is majoring in engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
