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Ohio Senate passes Clean Lake 2020 bill

Ohio Senate passes Clean Lake 2020 bill

The bill commits up to $20 million to help farmers reduce phosphorous runoff

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Lawmakers voted to pass a bill that would provide Ohio’s ag industry with financial support to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake Erie.

Ohio senators unanimously approved Senate Bill 299, also known as Clean Lake 2020 on June 6. The bill outlines funding measures to help reduce nutrient runoff by 40 percent by 2025.

Clean Lake 2020 allocates up to $36 million in government investments, including a total of up to $20 million to support state departments that create programs to help limit phosphorus runoff.

Local farmers are pleased with the bill’s progress.

The government’s decision to support the legislation provides both environmental and financial benefits, one producer said.

“Farmers are the world’s first environmentalists. We depend on having clean water and it’s our role to make sure the land we have is available for the next generation,” Karl Wedemeyer, a dairy producer from Marion County, Ohio, told Farms.com today.

“From an economic standpoint, if we can keep the nutrients in the ground where we need them, it reduces our input costs.

Ohio grain organizations also applauded the Senate’s decision.

“The health of Lake Erie has been a priority for Ohio grain farmers for many years, and they have invested their own dollars in research and education programs in an effort to be part of the solution,” said Allen Armstrong, president of the Ohio Soybean Association, the Norwalk Reflector reports. “Clean Lake 2020 will help farmers implement even more best management practices and achieve our goals faster.”

The Ohio House of Representatives will now consider Clean Lake 2020.

Gov. John Kasich could receive the bill for his signature by the end of June, Senators Steve Arndt and Randy Gardner, who authored the bill, told the Sandusky Register on Thursday.


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The 12-day war between Iran-Israel came to an end sending crude oil futures plunging as the big fund speculators removed the war risk premium.

The weather risk premium in the Ag complex is sending corn, wheat and soybean futures lower on month-end selling ahead of the market moving USDA quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports on June 30th.

Instead, funds were chasing and sending tech stocks higher with the S&P 500/NASDAQ indexes setting new all-time record highs!

June 1 USDA Hogs and pigs report was slightly bearish while the U.S. $ Index traded to new contract lows as the de-dollarization that began in 2014 continues.

Feed in the form of soybean meal futures for livestock producers got cheaper, trading to new contract lows.

The Stats Canada seeded acreage update was bullish canola and wheat.