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From left, Harkin, Brown and Moser talk agriculture during the senators' stop at OSU. COLUMBUS, Ohio - U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, offered their take on the pending farm bill at a forum held Friday at the recently completed Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center.

Joined by OSU President E. Gordon Gee and Bobby Moser, dean of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the senators discussed funding for farm bill programs including commodity price supports, fruits and vegetables, rural development, conservation, nutrition and more.

"I've been involved in agriculture for more than 30 years now on the House and Senate Ag Committees. This is my seventh farm bill, and there's alway negotiation," said Harkin, referencing differences between Congress and White House administration on funding of the bill.

"We did what the people asked us to do (pass a comprehensive, bipartisan farm bill), but the White House is playing a very tough negotiating game."

Harkin said that if the administration is willing to budge on its funding amount, there is still hope to get a farm bill completed by the time the current farm bill extension expires on March 15.

Read more about what could happen at the March 15 deadline in the March 13 edition of Buckeye Farm News.

The senators' views on the farm bill and a wide array of other topics important to agriculture can be heard on this week's Town Hall Ohio.

Town Hall Ohio airs on the following stations:

This week's show will also be available online on the morning of Monday, March 10, at www.townhallohio.org.