DELAWARE,
OH - Representatives of the Ohio Corn Growers Association (OCGA) and
the Ohio Wheat Growers Association (OWGA) were included in an
agriculture round table meeting sponsored by U.S. Representative John
Boccieri (D-OH), with special guest U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack.
The roundtable, which was held at the Wooster campus
of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC),
focused on rural development, markets, the farm bill and biofuels.
Vilsack noted that rural development, including the use and production of biofuels, "adds security to America."
Biofuels have created 800,000 to 900,000 jobs in the rural sector, he said.
Rep. Boccieri, who recently voted in Congress for one-way trade with Cuba, talked about the need to expand markets for grain.
OCGA's Anthony Bush and OWGA President Mark Wacthman spoke with Vilsack on current farm bill programs, including ACRE.
"A
county-to-county approach rather than a statewide system might make
more sense [in making ACRE easier for farmers]," Bush said.
On
Tuesday, July 20 Sec. Vilsack, Gov. Ted Strickland, OCGA Executive
Director Dwayne Siekman, OCGA Director of Government and Industry
Relations' Tadd Nicholson, representatives of Growth Energy and the
Ohio Ethanol Producers Association toured Marion, Ohio's POET
biorefining plant, where the need for getting more ethanol into the
American fuel supply was discussed.
