WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, delivered remarks at the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s Legislative Conference breakfast in Washington, D.C., and discussed with farmers what their priorities are for the 2023 Farm Bill. Brown talked about a number of topics, including provisions secured in the 2018 Farm Bill, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and how the Inflation Reduction Act will benefit Ohio agriculture, rural development conservation, and urban forestry.

“The best ideas don’t come from Washington, they come from Ohioans. And when writing a Farm Bill, the best ideas come from farmers themselves,” said Brown. “This year, we won’t just be building on the last Farm Bill. We’ll be building all the work we’ve done to build rural infrastructure and improve our supply chains. Whether it’s industrial production or ag production, more and more people are finally beginning to see what we have known for a long time: That it’s better for the long-term health of our economy and our communities when we produce more in America.”

Brown recently met with local farmers, officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and agriculture stakeholders in Chesterland, Grove City and Wooster to learn what priorities Ohio farmers have for the 2023 Farm Bill. Brown, the first Ohioan to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in 50 years, will help write the upcoming Farm Bill.

Brown has long been a leader for Ohio’s rural communities. Before the passage of the Farm Bill in 2008, 2013, and 2018, Brown held roundtables around Ohio to hear from farmers and rural communities about what they wanted to see in the bill, and successfully secured a number of Ohio-specific provisions that were important to the state’s farmers.