Ohio Growers Oppose National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement

Produce growers in Ohio are not signing on to the proposed National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, saying it serves large Western growers but not them, and they are “undertaking (their) own efforts to define the best ways to protect Ohio farming and its diverse market.”

While agreeing that food safety is a serious responsibility for producers, the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association (OPGMA) is urging its members to protect their interests.

“The proposal includes several issues that cause great concern for Ohio growers and small- to medium-sized growers across the United States,” the organization said in an e-mail letter to its members on Sept. 30.

“The proposal, written by Western Growers Association, is designed for very large California farms and the style of agriculture used in that part of the country,” the message said. “This is a call to arms for the Ohio farmer to get involved.”

Specifically, OPGMA asked growers to turn out and testify at a USDA hearing in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 6.

“(OPGMA) implores you to study the issue and attend the hearing to give your input,” the message said. “Your input is necessary for the protection of Ohio growers and producers. Our voice must be heard.”

OPGMA is undertaking efforts to define the best ways to protect Ohio farming and its “diverse farming culture and local ways,” and “to implement reasonable and cost-effective strategies to allow Ohio farmers to control their own market with standards written to promote and protect our produce.”

Karl Kolb, a Wisconsin-based scientist and vegetable and fruit grower member of OPGMA, has been hired as project manager for the Ohio farm food safety effort. His phone number is 715-723-4915. He said a series of five listening sessions is being set up for November, and the whole issue will be thoroughly discussed at the OPGMA conference in January. Information will be posted on the Web site, www.opgma.org.

Kolb said the proposed leafy greens agreement will have effects well beyond leafy greens because buyers won’t be willing to buy greens from one provider and other produce from other providers.

While traceback is important and needed, the water provisions in the agreement lay out an expensive protocol that is not needed in Ohio, and the Good Handling and Good Agricultural Practices don’t fit Ohio conditions.

Key issues involve Amish and Mennonite growers, who use animal power; muck farmers, where wet soils and weedy ditches and boundaries are important; setbacks and boundaries involving woodlots and wildlife; and marketing styles, since much Ohio produce moves at auctions, through cooperatives or via roadside stands and farmers’ markets.

OPGMA isn’t the only organization opposing the agreement. The California Community Alliance with Family Farmers is also concerned. It carries on its Web site a news article from the San Francisco Chronicle that details some of it complaints. Under the headline “Crops, ponds destroyed in quest for food safety,” the article says that “scorched-earth strategies are being imposed on hundreds of thousands of acres in the quest for an antiseptic field of greens.”

The article also said “an Amish farmer in Ohio who uses horses to plow his fields could find himself caught in a net aimed 2,000 miles away at a feral pig in San Benito County.”

– Dick Lehnert