By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — Robert Boggs compared the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s (ODA) accomplishments during his time as director to four legs of a table – supporting sustainable agriculture, development of biofuels and bioproducts, food safety, and promoting cooperation between farm groups.
Boggs, who will hand the reins over to State Representative Jim Zehringer on Jan. 11, talked recently about his time in office.

“I’m very proud of the last four years and I hope I’ve left a record that Representative Zehringer can build upon as he comes in and I think he’ll do a wonderful job,” he said.

ODA supported sustainable agriculture by implementing some ideas of the Ohio Food Policy Council. That included creating an Office of Sustainable Agriculture for the first time in the history of the state, Boggs said.

“This gave us the ability to really push farmers’ markets, support them financially, to work with local food movements, to identify food “deserts” (places where fresh fruits and vegetables are not readily available) in both rural and urban areas of our state,” he said.

Another table leg was supporting the further development of biofuels and bioproducts. During his time as director the state went from producing zero gallons of ethanol to over 400 million, he said. Ohio has the capacity to produce about over 580 million gallons.

“We need to continue to work on ethanol development in our state, not only to assist the local farmer because obviously this is a very important market for the grain farmers in Ohio, but also to reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of energy,” he said.

Food safety was the third leg and there have been many challenges since he became director, he said. The latest was the salmonella recall that will cost ODA over $700 thousand in additional testing. There have been outbreaks of E. coli, also.

“Our department, in coordination with federal agencies and local health departments, worked cooperatively and diligently to protect the health of Ohio families,” Boggs said.

Instilling an atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration among ODA, OSU and other farm groups was the final table leg. In a time when consumers are confused about food issues it’s very important that these groups don’t confuse them further by disagreeing among themselves, he said.

“I regret that we still haven’t achieved the unity in agriculture that we need,”
 Boggs said.

In addition, Boggs said during his tenure, ODA lost 80 members of its workforce and general revenue funds were reduced by almost 25 percent. The department handled that well, but Boggs regretted that opportunities were missed because of diminishing resources.

While the public sometimes has reservations about public employees Boggs said the people who worked for him in ODA had been exemplary.

“They work hard hours under very trying conditions both in the laboratories and out in the field and I could not have asked for more talented more dedicated employees than what I had here at the department of agriculture. It has been a pleasure and I am honored to have worked with them.”

Finally, Boggs said that the future of agriculture will be the salvation of Ohio’s economy. Industry is not going to come back to its former status. The only way the state will be viable economically in the future is to build on bioresources – whether energy, bioproducts or food.

“We can build a strong economy in Ohio, but we have to invest in our agricultural resources,” he said.