Ohio governor backs plan for livestock standards
CINCINNATI — Ohio should have a state board to set guidelines for livestock care, Gov. Ted Strickland said Monday, adding to the debate between farm interests and the nation’s biggest animal welfare organization.
The head of the Washington-based Humane Society of the United States said such a board would give farmers too much leeway and wouldn’t guarantee a ban of crates that are used to confine breeding sows or cages that are too small for laying hens.
“It provokes us to do a ballot initiative,” said society president Wayne Pacelle, who has guided successful initiatives and legislation in several states. “It almost forces our hand to seek a measure for November 2010 on confinement practices.”
The constitutional amendment backed by Strickland, who didn’t cite any current standards for the care of farm animals, would create a 13-member Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. If approved by the Legislature, which planned to take it up Wednesday, the plan would go before voters this year.
“The board,” Strickland said in a statement, “will ensure that Ohioans continue to have access to a safe and affordable local food supply and will make our state a national leader in the level of animal care and responsibility.”
He didn’t say who would be on the board.
Pacelle called the council “a transparent attempt by agribusiness interests” to thwart a ballot initiative on animal confinement.
“It would create an industry-dominated council that would seek to embrace the status quo in Ohio agriculture,” he said.
State Rep. John Domenick, who heads the House agriculture committee, said even though he was named the Humane Society’s Ohio legislator of the year for his bill last year that would have made cockfighting a felony, he doesn’t necessarily agree with all of the society’s ambitions.
“It’s important that we stand up for our rights as agriculture people,” Domenick said. “We’re a farming state. We don’t need a downturn in farming at this point to affect us even more.”
The 11 million-member Humane Society already had targeted Ohio for its next comprehensive action on a range of issues from livestock confinement to puppy mills. On Monday it released a survey it said shows Ohio is ripe for the taking, with 67 percent public support for a ballot initiative in November 2010.
Domenick, noting that the Humane Society waged a $10 million campaign to win in California, said, “If it makes it to the ballot, the Humane Society is going to win.”
Pacelle has said that Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington state also are in the group’s sights.
One farm group, the Ohio Farm Bureau, is bracing for a fight. Another, the Ohio Farmers Union, says a fight is pointless, expensive and unwinnable.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that a negotiated settlement is the best way to go,” said Roger Wise, a third-generation farmer and president of the Ohio Farmers Union. “It’s misguided to draw a line in the sand and say it’s us versus them.”
He said a fight would result in acrimony, vitriol and “ugly images on television to portray extremes as the norm to drive a wedge between producers and consumers.”
The Farm Bureau is going the other way, saying it doesn’t want debate on the issue to be driven by one point of view. It has created a Center for Food and Animal Issues to address all farm animal, family pet, zoo and research issues.
“It’s very easy for the public not to have all the facts,” spokesman Joe Cornely said. “We hope to bring a lot of voices to the discussion and not lose out in the public policy area because we didn’t show up.”
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina agriculture leaders urged farmers Monday to have their wheat tested after officials found high levels of a toxin in wheat samples from parts of the state.
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said vomitoxin has been found in samples from central and northeastern North Carolina. The toxin is a byproduct of a fungus often caused by wet weather during the early April pollination stage.
Troxler said testing is urgent because farmers harvesting their wheat now may not know the fungus is on their crop, so he warned it may continue contaminating wheat as it moves storage bins. He said the state would provide free testing.
Dan Weathington of the North Carolina Small Grain Growers Association said he’s confident there are enough protections in place to prevent harmful grain from entering the food supply.
North Carolina wheat brought in more than $100 million in 2007, according to state statistics.
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