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Boggs: More budget cuts loom for Ohio ag dept.

By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) is financially strapped, Director Robert Boggs told attendees of the annual Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) meeting, in what he called a “State of the Ag” speech.

The state has declining revenues because of the national recession, and over the past several years and for two more years more than $5 billion worth of taxes will be cut from the individuals and corporations of Ohio. So far, $1.3 billion has been cut out of the current state budget cycle, which began last year.

The ODA has taken a hit of $2 million since the budget was passed in July of last year, Boggs said; however, the $1.57 billion economic stimulus package passed last year will result in an infusion of money into the economy.

The department was fine after the first $2 million cut but more cuts are coming, he said. “We will handle the crises one way or another,” he said. “It’s not going to stop our mission.”

Assuring a safe food supply in the state and protecting plant and animal health are important to the department, Boggs said. The ODA inspects 208 establishments daily with the meat inspection program. This year there were several cases of e. coli 015787 throughout the state. None of the e. coli problems came from a state-inspected facility; they came from out of state or from federally inspected plants.

Boggs also said that language in the farm bill will possibly allow state-inspected facilities to sell meat across state lines. Currently, China can sell meat in any state – yet Ohio cannot sell to other states.

A mobile meat-processing unit may be in Ohio’s future. Both Vermont and the state of Washington have mobile processing units. The units could be moved from farm to farm to cut transportation costs for smaller processors.

Next, Boggs talked about the dairy division, saying that Ohio will probably produce 5 billion pounds of milk this year. That hasn’t happened since the 1960s.

“When we did that (in the 1960s) it took 550,000 dairy cattle to produce that amount of milk,” he said. “This year we’ll do it with 275,000 animals, more or less, which I think demonstrates how productive and efficient Ohio agriculture is thanks to improved genetics, to improved dairy practices.”

Ohioans still consume more milk and dairy products than the state produces. This is true of every commodity in Ohio except for eggs and Swiss cheese, and Boggs said that was indicative of great opportunities to produce more.

“One of the issues about production is that we have to go out of our way as producers and processors to convince the American public and the Ohio public that farmers have to be allowed to produce in an efficient way, a scientific way, and free of restrictions that are not based on science or on good health, or on good environmental quality,” he said.

Finally, Boggs talked about the bio-revolution. Although the state will probably not reach the expected goal of 390 million gallons of ethanol next year – two of its seven plants are having engineering problems – three of the POET plants are producing 30 percent more ethanol from the same amount of corn as did earlier plants.

“The technology is improving all the time, both in the genetics of the corn and in the production process,” Boggs said.

12/17/2008