By Gongwer Staff
Posted: March 24, 2015 9:07 AM

When you have forward-thinking producers along with good soil and climate, a good location and infrastructure, sound regulations, along with research and education, good things are bound to happen. This balance has led to Ohio’s wildly successful food and agriculture industry, which directly and indirectly touches everyone.

Ohio is made up of many different sized farms and there is room for all of them here in our state. From one operator to several family members on up to large ag businesses they have built an industry that provides billions in economic activity and thousands of jobs, not to mention quality food and agricultural products. For all of the benefits this industry has provided us, this success starts with small farmers and businesses right down the road from you in your local communities.

There is unprecedented demand from consumers for locally grown produce and meat and I am ecstatic to see that demand driving so many new faces into the industry. Bush Valley Farm in Adamsville is one such operation.

Bush Valley Farm is one visit out of many I will be making during my annual Ohio Agriculture Week trek across the state. Bush Valley Farm has recently been inducted into the Ohio Proud and Homegrown by Heroes programs, which help strengthen agriculture’s presence in the state by identifying fresh, Ohio-grown products grown by those who have or are still serving in the military.

This farm is owned by a husband and wife team, who provide quality, farm-raised meat that can be custom ordered to any specification, and is part of a growing movement for local communities to start business relationships with their local farmers.

Bush Valley Farm is just one operation that is representative of nearly any of Ohio’s agricultural farms. Ohio agriculture is made up of hundreds and thousands of families just like this, working hard, providing good agricultural products. You can buy produce, fruit, eggs, meat, maple syrup, Christmas trees or any number of agricultural products at local farms.

Ohio has 75,000 farms in the state and nearly 14 million acres of farmland. And we need every one of them to help meet domestic and global food demands. Did you know that today, the average person in the United States eats 22 pounds of tomatoes each year, mostly in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce? To help meet that demand, U.S. farmers produce 12 million tons of tomatoes, with 153,000 tons coming from Ohio producers. Did you also know that the U.S. also produces 66 billion eggs a year? Well, most people have no idea that 7.9 billion of those come from Ohio farms!

And as the population grows, so will those numbers. Americans eat about 30 pounds of lettuce every year. That’s about five times more than what we ate in the early 1900s. That’s okay because agriculture is keeping up. Today’s farmers produce 262 percent more food with 2 percent fewer inputs (labor, seeds, feed, fertilizer, etc.), compared with 1950.

This year, in honor of Ohio Agriculture Week, March 23-27, I will be traveling across the state to visit many of the agribusinesses and farm families that, by just doing their jobs, have helped make a significant contribution to Ohio and its citizens.

This year, I encourage all of you to seek out and start doing business with your local area farmers. You’re bound to get a high-quality product and it will support a local family, your community and our state. Ohio’s strong food and agriculture industry starts with the farmers making their living right down the road from you.