Congressman Space Hosts Agricultural Discussion Groups

COSHOCTON - More than 100 farmers, county and Farm Bureau officials turned out Friday at COTC's Coshocton Campus to discuss ways to improve the area's agricultural outlook.

Part of U.S. Rep. Zack Space's RENEW Ohio 18 (Realizing a New Economic Way for Ohio 18th Congressional District) initiative, those in attendance broke into sub-groups to toss around ideas which will become a part of a report.

"Helping establish connections and networking opportunities among business, government and agricultural producers is a very important part of what this is all about," Space said. "We need to brainstorm, discuss ideas and position ourselves to capitalize on opportunities." Jerry Lavy, a Zanesville businessman who is running for Muskingum County commissioner, agreed.

"There is a lot of good resource information here to work with, and it's great to hear it from the people involved in these issues," Lavy said.

Other locals in attendance included Jennifer Stewart of Zanesville , who is running for the 94th Ohio House District seat, Rick Shriver, candidate for the 20th Ohio Senate District slot and Brian Taylor with the Muskingum County Engineer's Office. Taylor helps work the family farm out in the Chandlersville area.

Adam Sharp, director of National Affairs for the Ohio Farm Bureau, was asked by Space to chair the agriculture working group, and members of Space's staff led each of the six sub-groups.

Each of the groups was asked to come up with their top five most important ideas to include in the study paper, and most of the groups came up with more than 30 to be culled down.

Several recurring themes among the groups was the need for more government support for farm management research and education, supplements or subsidy payments and start-up funds for young farmers.

Coshocton County Commissioner Larry Stahl and Teresa Bradford with Coshocton County Soil & Water Conservation both felt the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed facility, northeast of Coshocton, was an important resource for farmers in the community, from a research and education standpoint.

Jim Bonta, supervisory research engineer at the facility, said he would like to see more research and work done on putting Coshocton County's hilly landscape to good use for grazing as well as for biofuels.

Another topic raised was the possibility of transferring oversight of environmental regulations which affect farmers from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Agriculture.

There is also a need for making funding available for farmers to pay for those environmental requirements, said Scott Grove, a Farm Bureau member and beef farmer from the Gnadenhutten area.

"We need to look at water, stream and creek issues, because when you are a big farm, you are very visible, and people want to know what we're doing with the creek," Grove said. "I'm trying to do the things to be environmentally friendly to my neighbors, but it costs a lot of money. I spent around $40,000 to $45,000 on fencing and put in dry dams to control erosion. There just needs to be some help with that."

The ideas put together during Friday's session will be scored by David Staley, a professor from The Ohio State University, and will be developed into the report, which will be displayed on Space's Web site.

The final report, which will be compiled after a May 23 summit in Zanesville, will then be shared with officials, farmers, chambers of commerce and port authorities.

Source: Zanesville Times Recorder
By Brian Gadd, Staff Writer