By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

DUBLIN, Ohio — At the 75th Ohio Farmers Union (OFU) convention earlier this month, attendees were happy to support the victory of a member who won a case in the Ohio Supreme Court. They also decided policy at the meeting, but made time to have fun, too.
“It’s always nice to see old friends at the convention,” said Marv Thompson of Paulding County.

“It was neat to be here for the 75th anniversary of OFU,” added Gerry Landor of Williams County.

OFU President Roger Wise talked about special orders, the first in support of the victory of Bob Dues of Shelby County, who won a case in the Ohio Supreme Court. The case involved interest rates that cooperatives charge their customers for inputs and such, Wise said. If the bill was not paid monthly, the 2 percent interest rate compounded.

“It was quite a victory,” he said. “Any business, not just a co-op, can still charge interest, but not compounded; it can only be a reasonable interest rate. We supported that victory.”

Another special order supported the call by the American Soybean Assoc. for an investigation of the national soybean checkoff program because of alleged wrongdoing and lack of transparency.
“Farmers Union has always opposed checkoffs unless they were voluntary at the point of delivery, and they’ve never been that way,” Wise said. “We’ve always been leery of checkoffs ... there’s never been any evidence to show what that checkoff actually does to enhance the profits of soybean farmers.”

A third special order involved renewable and alternative energy. “Farmers are poised to be part of this renewable energy solution,” Wise said. “We want that to be funded through the farm bill and other initiatives, so we have the opportunity to take advantage of these economic opportunities and to help the nation become more energy independent. It’s a timely resolution.”

Trying to increase membership was one of Wise’s goals to keep OFU on track for the upcoming year. Membership increased in 2008, but that is always difficult, he said.

“Farmers aren’t getting any younger, so we have to work hard to maintain (membership) and to increase,” he said.

At the state level, OFU wants to ensure integrity of the permitting process in the confined animal feeding operations industry and to try to make sure environmental issues are handled with the best available technology, Wise said. Also, OFU is involved with a pyrolyisis (the chemical decomposition of a condensed substance by heating) project program. That involves equipment that is able to take the nutrients from manure and keep them in the soil.

“The byproduct is a compost-type product that is able to be spread on the land,” he said. “That is an initiative that we are working (on) with a grant through our Family Farm Coalition. We just got this equipment installed on a farm in northwest Ohio to actually start the study.

“The policy that we’ve developed as every year is what we advocate for in the upcoming year,” Wise said. “It is grassroots-driven, which is what we’re real proud of in our organization.”