Many folks don’t have the time to watch the entire, full length video, so we’ve extracted just the town hall questions and answers into short YouTube clips. Click on a link below to watch the question and answer.
(A full text transcript of the town hall forum is also available.)
Question 1: Will Issue 2 stop HSUS?
Question 2: Do we expect the standard of living for animals to change over time?
Question 3: Why an amendment to the Ohio Constitution?
Question 4: Won’t this board be subject to special interests?
Question 5: What makes you think we need something like this?
Question 6: Could Issue 2 violate individual rights?
Question 7: Will my children be as free under Issue 2?
Question 8: Why can’t we get rid of property tax?
Question 9: Is your aim to preempt the Ohio Administrative Procedure Act?
Question 10: If you want to protect choice, why combat issue 2?
Question 11: Can your 20 acre farm feed the world?
Question 12: What effect will this issue have on those that raise their own food?
Question 13: Is Issue 2 an intrusion on private property?
Question 14: Why let HSUS set the rules instead of a board?
Question 15: Why should farmers trust this board to represent them?
Question 16: Doesn’t Issue 2 establish what it’s trying to prevent?
Question 17: What is this going to cost?
Question 18: If we vote no, what else can we do?
Question 19: Are we looking to ever ban industrial farming practices?
Question 20: What might the consequences be to farmers that cannot comply?
Question 21: How much will this increase the price of food?
Question 22: Was a farmer’s freedom act considered instead?
Question 23: Is livestock private property?
Question 24: Is the impact on small farms up in the air?
Question 25: Do you want to prevent me from having a future in Ohio agriculture?
Question 26: A regulatory board to save us from regulation?
Question 27: Do you foresee this board circumventing the legislative system?
Statement: “… we do listen to the public … you’ll have your opportunity to voice your opinion — just like you have in the healthcare issue from the federal government” Click to watch.
Opening Statements:
Natalie Kee, Ohio ACT Coalition (Opposes)
Dr. Leah Dorman, Ohio Farm Bureau (Supports)
Tim Wightman, Dairy Farmer (Opposes)
Keith Stimpert, Ohio Farm Bureau (Supports)
Margaret Anne Ruhl, Ohio District 90 Representative (Supports)
Maurice Thompson, Attorney at Law (Neutral)
24. October 2009 at 7:26 pm
I have heard enough. This sounds like TARP. The government says just pass this and we will finish with the details afterwards. TARP money has become a way for the government to reward poticial parties and not to fuel the economy.
25. October 2009 at 12:57 pm
Thank you folks for sharing this video with those who could not make it to Columbus. Great questions! It sounds as though the issue is a fear that the voters will vote for something (ballot iniative) that will be destructive of the agriculture industry. So in order to stop the people from doing something destructive we will pass a constitutional amendment. In reallity it seems like anything else in this country….we must educate the populace!
27. October 2009 at 9:40 am
Issue 2 is another way for government to expand & intrude into our lives. Just look at what happened to the Manna Storehouse west of Cleveland last year when the gestapo thugs raided their farm & stole their food because some of their meat ended up at Oberlin College. It’s bad enough that they can kick us off of our own property if we can’t afford to pay their exhorbitant real estate taxes. The last bastion of freedom is our ability to grow our own food & raise our own livestock without interference. Stalin starved farmers to death on their own land by threatening them with armed soldiers. Anyone who votes yes for this bill is a brain-dead moron!
27. October 2009 at 4:49 pm
A pig in a poke if I ever saw one. Rep. Ruhl admitted that the amendment does nothing to prevent HSUS from attempting to regulate Ohio farmers. Strange to me that independent minded farmers would vote for more regulation and vote to increase the size of government. Small farmers are being taken for a ride. Eventually, they will have to comply with the board and HSUS.
27. October 2009 at 6:48 pm
I am 100% against Issue 2. I traveled from the Dayton area to attend this event. I am glad I attended.
First, Maurice Thompson, a constitutional law attorney at [organization removed by editor] (614-xxx-xxxx), made the best arguments AGAINST the passage of this issue.
For me, it’s a simple series of litmus test questions:
1. Do these sort of things belong in a constitution?
2. Does the proposed amendment increase economic and/or personal liberty?
3. Does it support free market principles?
For those reasons, I am against Issue 2 (and Issue 3 for that matter, even though I don’t really care whether people gamble or not; why not just legalize gambling?).
I read an interesting blog post that is somewhat related (talking about a case when the Ohio government raided a family farm): http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=6325#.
Here is the link on the Buckeye Institute’s site about the case: http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/article/1284.
Regarding the connection between the mentioned case and Issue 2, here is a little of what I found:
One of the defendants is Robert Boggs, the Ohio Department of Agriculture Director [http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/stowers.pdf].
Boggs is a supporter of Issue 2 [http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/boggs-ag-is-facing-challenges-yes-but-also-bio-revolution-opportunities/13002.html].
And guess who would be the chair of this proposed board? The “director of the state department that regulates agriculture.” [http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/ballotboard/2009/2-final_explanation.pdf]
According to The Ohio Liberty Council site, “an invitation was extended to Robert Boggs, the Director of Agriculture for the State of Ohio who declined.” [http://www.ohiolibertycouncil.com/?p=811]
Connecting the dots, that looks like Boggs to me. A family farm raider as the Ohio Farm Czar? No thanks.
27. October 2009 at 11:18 pm
It is unbelievable to me how many people are willing to give their freedom away in a single vote which our Founding Fathers were willing to give their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor to gain.
Vote NO on Issue 2!
29. October 2009 at 1:00 pm
Is Liberty Council allied with HSUS/PETA on their position on Issue 2?
The reason I ask is that there is very little background information on HSUS here. Here are three links to get more bakground on HSUS and more importanlty what their goals are. They are relatively short posts and it is worth checking them out and reading the whole thing:
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/h/3996-hsus-targets-ohio-in-political-cockfight
http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm?oid=136
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/h/3779-meet-the-new-political-peta-its-initials-are-h-s-u-s
For some reason, Libert Council has ignored this point of view, which is why I question if they are allied with HSUS or not.
29. October 2009 at 9:13 pm
We aren’t allied with HSUS or PETA whatsoever. We stand for the rights of the individual. PETA and HSUS want to force, yes FORCE, their views on everyone in the form of the banning of hunting and backdoor forcing of veganism on everyone by placing crushing restrictions on farms. They don’t have the right to force those beliefs on us any more than the government has the right to place further restrictions and regulations on the private property of our farmers. Our goal with issue 2 is to educate and inform people about the implications on the rights of individual farmers and consumers. I don’t think we’ve ignored HSUS at all. Watch the videos. There are several questions about HSUS. I would suggest that you ask the following question instead: Is Farm Bureau allied with HSUS/PETA? Do some searching on the web. Farm Bureau has had several meetings with HSUS. Do you suppose any compromises have been made?
2. November 2009 at 8:05 pm
I was born and raised on a dairy farm. We raised our own grain and hay. We cared for our cow’s well being not because it was politically correct, but we knew that a healthy cow was a more productive cow which was our bottom line. The point I am trying to make is: Your small family farmer knows his buisness, he loves his job and loves working the land.
I remember in the late 70’s or early 80’s the price of milk was $17.00 a hundred pounds. Thanks to the govt., it went down to $11.00 per hundred pounds. Unfortunately, the price of seed, fertilizer, sanitation chemicals, and all of the necessary products we had to buy remained the same price. This effectively ran us out of buisness as well as thousands of other hard working dairy farmers.
The way I see it from my end is that big farm and big govt. want’s us out of the way so they can maximize profits as well as obtain complete control over our ability to provide for ourselves. This in turn will make us dependent upon the govt.
Trust this, I feel much better buying a beef, gallon of milk, eggs, or produce of any kind from a small farmer. Most cannot afford the growth hormones and such as your “Industrialized farms” can. Corporate Ag stands to profit from Issue 2. While the govt. stands to gain ever increasing authority over what you can and cannot do.
One last thing. Corporate Ag are the one’s who burn up dairy cows with protein supplements. They grow a chicken big enough to butcher in 3 weeks. They can force a chicken to lay three times the eggs in their life cycle as well as make them lay year round with lights on them all the time. Now tell me, who abuses animals for profit? Who are the ones who are indorseing this farce? It’s not your “small” family farmer down the road!