SOIL EROSION REDUCTION...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - June 23, 2010
John Parker is retired from The Ohio State University, serves on a local farm bureau board, and is an independent agricultural writer.

"We finished planting soybeans in early May" said my friend "and we have been making grass silage when the weather cooperates and with the good growth of corn we need to get our nitrogen on,” he added. Most of his fields are tilled using what is called minimum till and no-till"
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FAMILY FARMS...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - June 16, 2010
John Parker is retired from The Ohio State University, serves on a local farm bureau board, and is an independent agricultural writer.

"Travel around Ashtabula and Trumbull County and other areas of northeast Ohio and notice the large fields that are being farmed. Most of them are planted to corn or soybeans and some can be 100 to 200 or more acres in size, Making that observation raises some good questions. Why have farms and fields become so much larger compared to 30 or 40 years ago? Just what size farms really produce our food locally and in the United States?"
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RESPONSE TO LIVESTOCK ABUSE VIDEO...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - June 2, 2010
John Parker is retired from The Ohio State University, serves on a local farm bureau board, and is an independent agricultural writer.

"Since the intense media coverage of livestock abuse on a dairy farm down in central Ohio, I have had conversations with several local dairy farmers about this unfortunate situation. Without exception, they found it hard to believe that anyone who is devoted to caring for dairy animals would be so abusive. With cow comfort the number one priority on their dairy farms, they were appalled by what they saw and read."
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OLCSB 1st LISTENING SESSION...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - May 19, 2010
John Parker is retired from The Ohio State University, serves on a local farm bureau board, and is an independent agricultural writer.

"More than 175 people turned out for the first Listening Session held recently by the new Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board in Parkman, Geauga County. The purpose of the session was to gather information from Ohioians to be used by the Board in developing standards for Ohio livestock. Represented were farms of all sizes, small and large, including organic and conventional agriculture. A few also identified themselves as consumers not farmers.

This was the first of six listening sessions to be held by the Livestock Care Standards Board across Ohio. Dominic Marchese from Trumbull County is a member of the Board and helpful in bringing this session to the area."
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MILLARD DAIRY FARM...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - April 28, 2010
John Parker is retired from The Ohio State University, serves on a local farm bureau board, and is an independent agricultural writer.

"Our top priority on our farm is cow health and comfort" said Scott Millard, who owns and operates Millard Dairy Farm in Pierpont along with his father, Gaylord and help from Pat, Gaylord's wife and brother David. This family farm of nearly 700 acres milking about 250 cows is a good example of today's efficient, family farms that provide our abundant, safe food at reasonable prices. "We don't need the Humane Society of the United States coming to Ohio trying to tell us how to farm" commented Gaylord as we were talking about challenges facing dairy farming today.
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RESPONSE TO OMNIVORES CHOICE...
Column written by John Parker and Dr. John L. Kroh, DVM, published in the Gazette - April 21, 2010
Dr. John L. Kroh is a retired veterinarian for Lake County and Chairman of the Northeast Ohio Pro-Animal Coalition. John Parker is retired from The Ohio State University and is an independent agricultural writer.)

An unfortunate, untruthful and misleading article titled "Choice, omnivores with a conscience" calls for an immediate response. While trying to play on the emotions of people, this article presents a picture that is simply not true. It could also discourage a few people, who don't know the facts, from eating safe, healthy, food that is produced in Ohio. Also, Ohioans are capable of establishing standards for their own livestock with out interference from Washington or the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
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CROP RISKS...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - April 7, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

Local farmers are gearing up to get their corn and soybean crops planted. Now they are waiting on cooperation from the weather. Warm days with drying conditions just right to let them till fields and get the seed in the ground will be welcome. Sometimes that happens--and sometimes it doesn't.
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HSUS BALLOT INITIATIVE
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - March 24, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

If the animal rights activist groups have their way, lets look at what will happen.
Our shopper Amanda headed to the grocery store for her usual weekly shopping. When she got there, Amanda was shocked. No milk was in the dairy case and her family likes milk. Ice cream, a family favorite, could not be found anywhere. Eggs were missing along with butter. She wanted a beef roast but there were none. Some of the soaps she used were no where to be found. She was dismayed. She wanted the variety of good, wholesome animal foods in her family's diet.
Thankfully that is not the case today but tactics being used by groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Farm Sanctuary and others have that for their long range goal.
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GLOBAL WARMING...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - March 10, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

Let's take a look at agricultural history going back to the years of A.D. 800 to about 1300. This information comes from an interesting book "Climate of Fear" written by Dr. Thomas Moore, who has taught at Michigan State University, Stanford University and UCLA.
Using oxygen isotope measurements, upper tree lines in Europe and written records, Dr. Moore was able to come up with a good idea of what farming and society in general were like during those centuries of long ago. And the picture he came up with is interesting and has some application for today.
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CONVENTIONAL / ORGANIC
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - March 3, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

Want to go back to the days of farming 40 acres with a mule or horse? I doubt it but there some who think that would be a good thing. That's Okay if they want to spend those long, back breaking hours digging out a subsistence kind of living. But let's don't try to put everyone in that mold. We have at least two kinds of food production in this country and around the world. There are the traditional or conventional farmers and the organic growers. Differences in the systems are considerable but there is a place for both of them in our country.
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HSUS ACTIONS
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - February 10, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

Out-of-state animal activists seem to think they are more intelligent than people in Ohio. That is what the largest animal rights activist group is saying. According to a release from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, lobbyists from Washington, D.C. based Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are saying they know better than Ohio voters the kind of care Ohio livestock needs. HSUS has announced plans to put a measure on the Ohio ballot through which they would dictate decisions made by the newly created Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.
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SO YOU ARE NOT A FARMER...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - January 27, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

So you are not a farmer. But I would suggest that you have a big interest in the farms that dot the countryside in our area. In fact, they are one of the most important economic assets we have. And you are interested as one who may enjoy a good dinner that comes from the products off those farms.
Sure, you want good food and enough of it to enjoy and avoid being hungry. Because of the interest in agriculture from you and I who don't farm, we sometimes think we should be able to tell farmers how they should run their business, even when we don't really know anything about farming.
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AGRICULTURE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY...
OUR ABUNDANT FOOD SUPPLY...
Column written by John Parker, published in the Gazette - January 6, 2010
An idependent writer for agriculture, John Parker is on a local farm bureau board.
His columns appear regularly in the Gazette and Star Beacon.

Have you ever gone to the supermarket, looked around, and wondered where all those full shelves of food came from? Or how we have all that abundance in this country?
Probably not. Most of us take for granted that our stores will be full of food. All kinds, shapes and sizes that we demand. We have never experienced what it would be like to not have enough to buy or to be hungry.
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