By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Obama administration has announced the appointment of Robert “Bob” Boggs to the Ohio Farm Service Agency State (FSA) Committee. The committee oversees the activities of the agency, including carrying out the state agricultural conservation programs, resolving appeals from the ag community and helping keep producers informed about FSA programs.

Boggs, recent former director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), was recommended for the position by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). In this position he will be dealing with many of the same issues he dealt with as director of the ODA, but in a more advisory position, he said.

“We’ll be making recommendations to USDA and FSA leadership on, for example, the new farm bill; what we think should be changed or kept or improved in the farm bill,” Boggs said.

“Senator Brown is the first U.S. Senator from Ohio in 40 years to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee and he is a subcommittee chairman, so he is going to play a very pivotal role in that bill. He is looking to us and to the rest of the agricultural community in Ohio to help give him direction as they move forward.”

Agriculture is key to the economic revitalization and the local food effort must be encouraged, Boggs said. He believed that in his position as ODA director, and believes it more strongly now. Ohioans purchase $43 billion worth of food every year, but only 3 percent comes directly from farmers.

“If we could just keep improving the local food network; making it more convenient for people to buy local, to have the supplies be more regular, to do things by flash freezing – in the harvest time farmers can flash freeze some of their produce so it is available all year long instead of just during the summer months,” Boggs said. “I think we can really have an impact on the economy of Ohio.”

Also in the area of bioenergy, with gasoline prices approaching $4 a gallon and predictions they will go up to $5, it’s more important now than ever that the country move in a direction of producing more energy from biobased methods, he said.

“Whether it is using animal waste and food waste to produce electricity or ethanol or soy diesel, whatever, we need to cut our dependence on foreign energy,” he added.

Boggs was raised on a small dairy farm in Ashtabula County. He received his bachelor’s degree in government from American University in Washington, D.C., and a master’s in public administration from Kent State University. He served as a state representative and state senator for 24 years and as a county commissioner for 10 years.

“Bob will work with USDA to help farmers and producers build and maintain successful operations that produce the safe, nutritious food supply that America needs, while spurring economic development in our nation’s rural community,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.