Editor:

It’s no secret that Ohio relies heavily on its agriculture industry. From growing and processing to transporting and selling, one in every seven Ohioans play a role in Ohio agriculture, making it the state’s leading industry.

As an 8th generation family farmer, the former President of the Ohio Farm Bureau and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I know how important this industry is to Ohio’s economy. I am supporting Bill Beagle to be the next Congressman from Ohio’s 8th Congressional District because he also understands the value of agriculture in the Buckeye State.

Since being elected to the Ohio Senate in 2011, Bill Beagle worked tirelessly to make it easier to do business in Ohio, including maintain a working farm, by lowering taxes on Ohio business owners and ensuring the safety of Ohio’s agriculture products through common sense reforms.

Ohio is home to more than 74,000 farms, which also fuels an expanding food processing industry that employs over 68,000 Ohioans alone. These businesses do more than provide much-needed jobs for our state, they can and do put food on the tables of many Americans.

Bill Beagle understands the strategic advantage of Ohio’s geographic position in the United States and has the expertise to use our position to advance our Agriculture industry, which will propel our state’s entrepreneurs, small businesses and working families forward.

This March, the people of Western Ohio have a clear opportunity to send a common-sense conservative to Washington D.C. Bill Beagle has been a proven tireless advocate for all Ohioans in the Ohio Statehouse and it is his leadership we need in the nation’s capital.

I hope the citizens of Ohio’s 8th Congressional District will join me in supporting Bill Beagle when they cast their ballots.

State Senator Bob Peterson