03/02/2006

Ohio State Launches Center for Farmland Policy Innovation

Writer:

Martha Filipic
filipic.3@osu.edu
614-292-9833

Source:

Jill Clark, Center for Farmland Policy Innovation
clark.1099@osu.edu
614-247-6479

By Martha Filipic (614) 292-9833 filipic.3@osu.edu Source: Jill Clark (614) 247-6479 clark.1099@osu.edu

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new center designed to promote innovative ways to protect Ohio's farmland is up and running at Ohio State University, thanks to $400,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.

"This will be an 'action' center," said Jill Clark, interim director of the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation. "The vast majority of our resources will go directly to fund local projects. We'll be doing much more than research and planning."

"I am pleased to see the Farmland Policy Center, one of the projects I helped secure funding for in last year’s appropriations bill, moving forward," said Senator Mike DeWine, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Creating this center to help fund and provide resources for local projects ensures that Ohio and Ohio farmers will have the ability to continue to preserve viable farmland while encouraging local development."

The center is a response to the needs of local leaders and landowners in their communities who want to retain viable farming while expanding development and are unsure of how to balance the two. The center will match expertise and resources to local priorities.

The center soon will be accepting applications for funding for farmland protection projects under the center's first objective, the Farmland Policy Partnership Program.

"I think communities who are going to be most interested in this project are those that still have healthy agricultural sectors but also are experiencing growth, change and development pressure, and want to respond in an equitable way," Clark said.

Under this program, the center initially plans to fund four local projects, depending on applications. Preliminary criteria for potential projects may include:

• The goal is to protect farmland.
• The applicant(s) must be a local governmental entity or similar agency.
• The project must have a budget that includes a local cost-share, direct or in-kind.
• The project must be innovative and new to Ohio.
• The project must be implemented within one to two years.
• The project must translate into a model for other Ohio communities and the local partner must be willing to participate in ongoing education for other Ohio communities. "We want to form a series of demonstration projects or 'land laboratories' that can be examples for the whole state," Clark said.

The center held its first advisory board meeting on Feb. 22. Board members are: Larry Libby (chair), director of the John Glenn Institute at Ohio State; Don Brosius, attorney at law, Loveland & Brosius; Kirby Date, coordinator of The Countryside Program; Lynne Erickson, director of the Portage County Regional Planning Commission; Chris Henney, director of Agricultural Ecology, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation; Peggy Kirk Hall, director of Ohio State's Ag Law Program; Amalie Lipstreu, program coordinator of The Farmland Center; Larry Long, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio; Krista Magaw, executive director of the Tecumseh Land Trust; Ken Martin, assistant director of OSU Extension; Tom Price of Price-Barnes Organics; Allen Prindle, professor at Otterbein College; Ron Ratliff of Ratliff Farms; Ellen Walker, administrator in Jefferson Township, Franklin County; Bill Westbrook, owner of Westbrook Development Company; Brian Williams, Ohio state director of American Farmland Trust; and Howard Wise, assistant director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

For additional information about the center or its upcoming call for proposals, contact Jill Clark at (614) 247-6479 or clark.1099@osu.edu.

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