The 97th annual meeting of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) will be Dec. 2 – 4 in Columbus. The state’s largest and most inclusive food and farm organization will elect leaders, establish its policies for the coming year, conduct leadership training and recognize county Farm Bureaus and individuals for their contributions to the organization and community. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Strong Foundation…Building for Tomorrow.”

Nearly 350 delegates will finalize the organization’s stances on topics important to all Ohioans. Issues are expected to include drugs in Ohio’s communities including the outlook for legal marijuana, energy development, agriculture and water quality, meat inspection regulations, improvements to property tax laws, invasive species and the structure of local governments. Officer and trustee elections also will be conducted.

Attendees will be updated on the roll out of Farm Bureau’s new membership structure that was approved by delegates at last year’s annual meeting. A special session will introduce members to the reorganized Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation.

Featured speakers during the meeting will be Ohio Farm Bureau President Steve Hirsch, OFBF Executive Vice President Jack Fisher and Nationwide Chief Executive Officer Steve Rasmussen.

Other meeting highlights will be honoring top performing county Farm Bureaus for their accomplishments in advancing the goals of the organization, recognition of individual members for long careers of service, and the naming of new chairpersons for OFBF’s Young Agricultural Professionals program.

The third annual Ohio Food and Farm Leadership Forum takes place Dec. 2 in conjunction with the annual meeting. Among the topics to be presented are local food opportunities, water quality issues, farm succession planning and immigration issues. Keynote speaker for the Forum is NFL great Larry Csonka.

Coverage of all events will be available in real time online at ofb.ag/97thAnnualMeeting.

Staff report