TOLEDO, Ohio — Water quality and food production are inextricably linked. How do people manage both resources in ways that meet society’s needs? Moderator Gail Hogan, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, opened a panel discussion on this at The Food Dialogues: Toledo.

"The Western Lake Erie Water Basin is a focal point of our area, for many things," Hogan said. "We are all tied together because of the agriculture in the area, environmental factors surrounding Lake Erie, travel and tourism, that all impacts us and the lake. Are all of these different factions coming together for the common good of Ohio?"

The panelists were Jack Fisher, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s (OFBF) executive vice president; Josh Knights, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Ohio; Jay Martin, lead faculty for the Ohio State University’s (OSU) Global Water Initiative and the Field to Faucet Program; and Terry McClure, farmer from Paulding County and vice chairman of the Ohio Soybean Council Board.

These factions are coming together for the good of Ohio, Fisher told Hogan, and at a much higher level than what he sees happening in other states.

There is a lot of finger pointing in agriculture’s direction when farmers are trying to provide food, Hogan said. Fisher agreed that sometimes farmers did feel as if they were being picked on more than is fair. Instead, they would like to have more conversation about working together to find solutions.

The Nature Conservancy is a science-based organization, and they spend a lot of time working together with others to look at the sources of phosphorous, Knights said. Agriculture is one source, but it is not the only source.

"That’s important for everyone to understand," he said. "Our failing septic systems, our wastewater treatment plants ... From an environmental standpoint, we also lost a lot of our wetlands, and wetlands are extremely effective filters in terms of clean water."

The good news is that OSU and other institutions in Ohio and across the Midwest are looking at several best management practices that are having good results in reducing nutrients coming from farms fields, Martin said.

"Some of those are drainage tile or drainage water management – holding some of the water back on the farms instead of letting it come off of the field tiles," he said. "And there are ways to get the fertilizer off the surface of the farm, to incorporate it into the soil or inject it into the soil directly."

Next Hogan questioned McClure on the experimental work being done on his farm. He explained that when the issue of algae blooms first came up, there were too many unanswered questions.

At that time, most of that research was done with modeling (a method scientists use to replicate real-world systems) from the mouth of the lake or tributaries. Now there are 32 sites across Ohio that are doing continual, actual field-edge testing of surface and subsurface water so farmers can understand exactly what is leaving their farm.

"As we make adjustments to our farming practices, to see what changes, we are going to understand more of this," McClure said. "Agriculture has ‘ponied up’ well over $2 million for research on this."

The Food Dialogues signature events are designed to bring together experts on today’s most pressing topics related to food and food production. The U.S. Farmers And Ranchers Alliance, OFBF, Ohio Corn Marketing Program, Ohio Small Grains Marketing Program, Ohio Soybean Council sponsored the Toledo event.

A recorded stream of the event is available at www.fooddialogues.com