Ohio Livestock Coalition sets direction for 2013

Antibi­otics, envi­ron­ment and farmer out­reach lead focus

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Live­stock Coali­tion (OLC) Board of Direc­tors (Board) elected new offi­cers and iden­ti­fied three key focus areas in Decem­ber to guide its direc­tion for this year. Dick Isler, exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent of the Ohio Pork Pro­duc­ers Coun­cil, will serve as pres­i­dent of OLC. He will lead the orga­ni­za­tion as it addresses its pri­or­ity issues, includ­ing antibi­otics in food pro­duc­ing ani­mals, nutri­ent man­age­ment and water qual­ity issues, and max­i­miz­ing resources avail­able from national farm orga­ni­za­tions work­ing on sim­i­lar issues.

“The use of antibi­otics in live­stock and envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment at farms are impor­tant issues for farm­ers and all Ohioans,” said David White, OLC exec­u­tive direc­tor. “The Board pri­or­i­tized these focus areas that will advance our abil­ity to engage in pub­lic dia­logue and sup­port our mis­sion to assist Ohio’s live­stock farm com­mu­nity in expand­ing its pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions to the state by advanc­ing envi­ron­men­tally friendly, socially respon­si­ble and eco­nom­i­cally viable farming. “

The focus areas were approved at the Decem­ber Board of Direc­tors meet­ing. Board mem­bers also elected the fol­low­ing offi­cers dur­ing that meeting:

• Dick Isler, pres­i­dent. Isler replaces David Glauer, DVM, who served as pres­i­dent the past two years. Dr. Glauer will con­tinue to rep­re­sent the Ohio Vet­eri­nary Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion on the OLC board.

• Roger High, who rep­re­sents the Ohio Sheep Improve­ment Asso­ci­a­tion, will serve as vice president.

• Scott Hig­gins, who rep­re­sents the Amer­i­can Dairy Asso­ci­a­tion Mideast and is a past pres­i­dent of OLC, was elected to serve as secretary/treasurer. Mr. High held the seat previously.

“The OLC has a proud his­tory of elect­ing strong lead­ers com­mit­ted to build­ing trust in Ohio’s farm­ers and food pro­duc­ers through open and proac­tive engage­ment with the pub­lic,” said White. “This slate of elected offi­cers con­tin­ues that tradition.”

“I am hon­ored to be assum­ing this role with OLC,” said Isler. “Under the lead­er­ship of Dr. Glauer, the OLC has served as an effec­tive voice for live­stock farm­ers and has estab­lished pos­i­tive part­ner­ships with opin­ion lead­ers and other Ohioans inter­ested in farm and food issues. I am com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing the work of OLC and look for­ward to this oppor­tu­nity on behalf of the live­stock community.”

In 2012, OLC lead­er­ship devel­oped a strate­gic plan to guide ongo­ing pro­grams and strengthen OLC’s abil­ity to meet its vision and mis­sion. The strate­gic plan iden­ti­fies three pri­or­ity areas for long-term success:

• Drive unity among Ohio’s ani­mal agri­cul­ture stakeholders;

• Shape per­cep­tion of ani­mal agri­cul­ture in Ohio; and

• Proac­tively iden­tify emerg­ing issues.

“Farm­ers are ded­i­cated to respon­si­ble pro­duc­tion as well as the stan­dards and best prac­tices that ensure the ani­mals on our farms receive qual­ity care, our nat­ural resources are pre­served and pro­tected, and that our rural com­mu­ni­ties remain vibrant,” said White. “I am con­fi­dent the Ohio Live­stock Coali­tion Board of Direc­tors has set a pos­i­tive direc­tion for our efforts on behalf of farm­ers and their com­mu­ni­ties in 2013.”

The OLC, formed in 1997, is a statewide trade orga­ni­za­tion con­sist­ing of diverse agri­cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual farm­ers com­mit­ted to a mis­sion of advanc­ing envi­ron­men­tally friendly, socially respon­si­ble and eco­nom­i­cally viable live­stock farm­ing prac­tices. The OLC vision is to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment in which Ohio’s farm com­mu­nity can pros­per and grow, and is a trusted resource in shar­ing fact-based infor­ma­tion about ani­mal agri­cul­ture and food production.

Posted by Tina Murdock on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.