By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A proposed Ohio bill would create a 13-member task force, including a representative from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF), to recommend ways to align and expand the state’s agricultural and specialty chemicals-polymer industry.

The goal of the bill is to promote strategic opportunities associated with agriculture-based chemicals, polymers and advanced materials as part of Ohio’s economic future, said Rocky Black, OFBF senior director of policy and political affairs.

“The world market today is positioning more and more toward bio polymers and bio based material,” Black said. “Ohio has historically been one of the national leaders if not world leaders in polymer production and polymer manufacturing.”

Ohio’s position as a leader is being challenged by China, India and other countries, Black said, which have switched from traditional petroleum-based polymer production to biopolymer production.

“The challenge for Ohio is, if we continue to make chemical based and petroleum based polymers as we have historically, in 5 to 10 years we could be sitting on the sidelines,” he said. “It is important that we keep up with the other countries that are already far advanced in using bio based polymers for manufacturing.”

The situation with this bill is unique, Black said, because universities and members of the chemical and polymer industry recognized that they have to unite with one another and with agriculture to keep up with the new manufacturing processes that are being unleashed. OFBF has supported advanced manufacturing research at the OSU College of Agriculture and the BioProducts Innovation Center.

“This is essentially taking it to another level,” Black said. “Heretofore we in agriculture have been talking to ourselves until we reach the point that we think we’re ready for commercialization. Then we touch base with the chemical or polymer industries.

“This will put everybody in the same room at the same table from the beginning of various projects,” he said. “We can be developing exactly what the end users need. I think it’s a whole new market area for agriculture and I think it is going to come at us fast because of the world competition.”

The bill, which passed the House and ran out of time before the summer recess in the Senate, will give momentum to the issues; the task force must report back to the administration and the legislature about their findings. The bill is expected to be voted out of the Senate in September or October.

“An effort like this shows that agriculture is very much a forward looking, progressive industry, on the cutting edge of economic development and new technologies. I hope this will be another area in which people will reexamine the agriculture industry and realize that it is a muscular industry that belongs in our future planning and our future development.”

In its initial proposal, the task force would include 7 leaders from some of Ohio’s agricultural and polymer production organizations including OFBF, ODA, and the Ohio Dept. of Development, the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center, Polymer Ohio, the Ohio Chemistry Technology Council and the energy advisor to the governor.

This farm news was published in the July 25, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.