H2Ohio is worth the investment, study says
The H2Ohio water quality program is reducing the amount of fertilizer entering northwest Ohio waterways and is an efficient use of state funding.
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Our Ohio Weekly: Ohio EPA’s proposed TMDL for northwest Ohio
Over the past year, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has started to develop a TMDL for the Maumee River watershed to address algal blooms and the sources of nutrients that attribute to those blooms.
A TMDL, or Total Maximum Daily Load, determines the maximum amount of a given pollutant that can be discharged into a body of water and still allow that water body to meet its water quality goals. One such TMDL is being put together right now by Ohio EPA for a big chunk of northwest Ohio, the Maumee River watershed. On this Our Ohio Weekly, learn more about how TMDLs work and what this new one could mean for Ohio agriculture.
00:00 – Joshua Griffin, Ohio EPA environmental specialist, talks about Ohio’s newest TMDL, the development process and impacts on northwest Ohio.
16:50 – Ohio Farm Bureau’s Sr. Director of Policy Development & Environmental Policy, Dr. Larry Antosch, talks about Farm Bureau’s involvement in the TMDL process and the organization’s overall policy on TMDLs.
23:50 – “To the Beat of Agriculture,” hear from the COO of a family farm in Jeffersonville. Learn about his sister, Gail Betterly and the incredible gift of a Nationwide life insurance policy she left for the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation after her passing.
32:20 – Nothing says “I love you” like a prenuptial agreement, but they are becoming an important piece of farm plans. Ryan Conklin, an attorney with Wright and Moore, explains why he is seeing more of these agreements put in place before the knot is tied.
42:20 – The Farm to School program through Ohio State University Extension has been working with farmers, collaborating with community leaders and connecting students with local food and nutrition education for decades. Farm to School’s program assistant Haley Scott explains what the program is all about.
I'm eternally grateful for the support Ohio Farm Bureau scholarships provided in helping me turn my dreams into reality.
I appreciate the benefit of having a strong voice in my corner. The extras that are included in membership are wonderful, but I'm a member because of the positive impact to my local and state agricultural communities.
I see the value and need to be engaged in the community I live in, to be a part of the decision-making process and to volunteer with organizations that help make our community better.
Farm Bureau involvement has taught me how to grow my professional and leadership experience outside of the workforce and how to do that in a community-centric way.
With not growing up on a farm, I’d say I was a late bloomer to agriculture. I feel so fortunate that I found the agriculture industry. There are so many opportunities for growth.
Labor has always been an issue, mainly because we are a seasonal operation. So that's a challenge finding somebody who only wants to work three months out of a year, sometimes up to six months.
Knowing that horticulture is under the agriculture umbrella and having Farm Bureau supporting horticulture like it does the rest of ag is very important.
If it wasn't for Farm Bureau, I personally, along with many others, would not have had the opportunity to meet with our representatives face to face in Washington.
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