Ohio Ag director has listening visit in BG

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The new Ohio Department of Agriculture director has been touring the state to meet her constituents and
that tour brought her to Bowling Green on Friday.
Dorothy Pelanda was appointed to the post by Ohio’s new governor, Mike DeWine.
Her most important item brought to the meeting was her notebook to take notes from those in attendance on
their thoughts and concerns.
“I am here and ready to listen to all of you,” Pelanda said.
The meeting was sponsored by the Wood County Soil and Water Conservation District and was held at the
Wood County Fairgrounds.
Pelanda came dressed in an FFA jacket and took special interest in the nearly one dozen current FFA
members who were in attendance.
“I come to this job with a passion to be good stewards of the land,” said Pelanda, who grew up in Union
County.
She stressed the importance of water quality across the state and especially in this area, with its
proximity to Lake Erie. She spoke of Senate Bill 299 and the $900 million in appropriations over the
next 10 years for funding programs for the lake and the need to use that money wisely.
That money will be spent across all 88 counties. It will be administered by her office, the Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency and the Soil and Water Conservation District.
She focused on a wide range of topics including the possibility of more hemp being grown locally to be
used for its fiber. She noted that her father’s World War II uniform was made from hemp.
“Hemp and its byproducts will likely be grown more frequently in Ohio,” Pelanda said.
Ohio is very diverse and each area of the state faces its own problems, she said. Some counties’ biggest
problems currently are the log jams on rivers and streams.
“It’s important to hear from the farmers. Please feel free to contact me any time,” Pelanda said.
She concluded her talk with a question-and-answer session.
One question asked was why the 4R certification program applies only to chemical fertilizer. Pelanda said
the same general principles of the program still apply; however, the measurements are different for
manure and its application.
Another question was about the goal of the investment of the $900 million and how that will be measured.

“The ultimate success is clean water,” she said. “That’s what we all want, but how do we determine what
is considered ‘clean’ and how is that measured?”
That question, Pelanda said, will have to be determined as time passes.
“Everything needs to be science-based solutions. We are still struggling trying to refine all the
aspects.”
She stressed the importance of the farm community sharing stories.
“Farmers are smart and hard-working people,” Pelanda said. “One of the ways they can do that is through
the ‘Farm to Table’ education programs.”
She explained that the farmers across the country who have used this find the site to be very rewarding
for both them and the people who have visited. A typical program would feature 20 to 30 city dwellers
coming to the farm for a meal and to learn first-hand about the food they are eating, not only that day
but year-round. Other similar programs include Farm to School.
Another important focus for Pelanda is farm preservation programs, which are designed to keep current
farmland as farmland without development.
Pelanda also talked about safety in various forms including meat inspections, ride inspections and gypsy
moth spraying.

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