U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) sat down with Toledo-area farmers this week at the Oregon farm of Bill Myers.
Northwest Ohio farmers will need to be a large part of the algae solution, and it was important for the senator to hear what they had to say.
Farmers have been absorbing the brunt of the blame for the recurring algae blooms in the Maumee River and Lake Erie.
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Some of that blame is rightly placed. There are more than a handful of farmers who are making no effort to prevent phosphorous fertilizer runoff from their fields into our waterways.
But most farmers are taking good-faith steps to deal with the issue.
Those efforts have not been sufficient to this point. Environmental and conservation groups released a report on Tuesday saying that Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario are not on track to meet their goal of a 40 percent reduction of phosphorous and other fertilizer runoff into the western basin of Lake Erie by 2025.
“Rescuing Lake Erie: An Assessment of Progress” was authored by the Alliance for the Great Lakes and Freshwater Future. The report said efforts to address harmful algal blooms “have been painfully slow.”
What the farmers told Senator Brown is that they feel they are unfairly taxed on land that they take out of cultivation to serve as a buffer strip against fertilizer runoff. And that the government needs to do more to reach farmers reluctant to embrace conservation efforts. Tadd Nicholson, speaking on behalf of the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers’ Association, said crop-insurance programs need to be protected.
Mr. Brown is in position to do these things as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is collecting ideas to go into the next federal farm bill. The current version expires on Sept. 30, 2018. A draft of the new bill should be ready in the spring.
Mr. Brown is a powerful ally for northwest Ohio and for Lake Erie. The Trump Administration has targeted many of the conservation programs favored by the farmers. Mr. Brown must defend scientifically proven programs to address fertilizer runoff and do all that he can to engage and support area farmers in the efforts to heal our waterways. Voluntary programs alone will not save Lake Erie, and farmers cannot shoulder all the responsibility alone.
First Published October 13, 2017, 9:45 p.m.
