Comments from the CEO

Chris Henney shares updates on your association

2nd Quarter 2016 - 7/11/16

As our industry is well aware, water quality continues to be a major issue. Last week, along with the executive leaders of the other main agricultural organizations in Ohio, I toured the Toledo Water Treatment Facility. Afterwards, we all met with the Toledo mayor, Paula Hicks-Hudson, to share the many positive things agriculture is doing to manage nutrients in the Western Lake Erie Basin watershed. The mayor asked many questions during the hour and a half meeting. It was clear she and her staff have a lot of concern with large livestock farms and manure management especially. The mayor made it clear she was not in favor of designating Lake Erie impaired. However, her main reason was the significant costs the city would have to bear to bring their sewage treatment plant up to snuff. She is supporting a pending city council resolution urging Congress to strengthen the Clean Water Act by creating direct regulatory controls over nonpoint sources of pollutants as part of the total maximum daily loads program. I don’t see much coming of this resolution, but we will certainly be monitoring it. The meeting opened a much needed dialogue between the mayor and Ohio’s agricultural leaders, and created a pathway for better communication in the future.

One of the items that was shared with Mayor Hicks-Hudson was the success of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification Program. OABA is proud of the industry and the way agricultural retailers have embraced the program. As many of you have read before, OABA has hired Mark Fritz as our 4R Outreach Coordinator. Mark is available to come out to your retail agronomy facilities to share information about the program, help you prepare for your audits and help you comply with any corrective actions required from the audit. As administrators of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification program, we are committed to its success. Here are the most current statistics on certified facilities: 

This program and its success is getting national attention. Both Andrew Allman, OABA’s director of business operations and executive director of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification Program, and I have fielded many inquiries and given many presentations on the program. Expansion talks are taking place for several other parts of the U.S. and Canada as well.

As you’ve read before, I’m also very excited about the announcement that Margo Long has been appointed a regional representative for the Nutrients for Life Foundation. Margo is still a full-time OABA employee, but we have dedicated a portion of her time to assisting the Foundation and its mission. She’ll provide grassroots educational and public awareness services in the state of Ohio. Her main role will be to work with primary and secondary educators in the school system to promote the Foundation’s plant and soil science curriculum, Nourishing the Plant in the 21st Century. Education has long been a key goal of the Ohio AgriBusiness Association and we see this partnership as an opportunity to strengthen all of Ohio agriculture.

Many other things are happening in your association. We’ve held several wheat quality meetings over the last year and are looking for additional ways to support Ohio’s millers and wheat growers during what has been a couple of challenging years (we’ll see how this year’s harvest turns out.) We have been working with the Ohio Department of Agriculture and our Public Policy Committee to review Ohio’s grain license law and determine if updates need to be made to this important part of Ohio’s Revised Code, as it pertains to not only grain licensing but also the Ohio Grain Indemnity Fund. We’ll keep you abreast as we determine action items resulting from these discussions.

I’ve had the opportunity to visit many of our members over the last few months and look forward to making more visits later this summer. I enjoy many aspects of my job, but one of my favorite things is visiting our many elevators, feed mills, agronomy facilities and other member company locations around the state. Don’t be surprised if I drop in sometime to your location!

I appreciate our members’ support and participation with OABA. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have ideas, concerns or issues. You can reach me at 614-326-7520 or chenney@oaba.net. We are here for you!

-Chris