Ohio Senate passes Clean Lake 2020 bill

Jun 12, 2018

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.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.