Editor:

In 2017 and the first year of his Presidency, Donald Trump came through on his promise to support rural Americans and agriculture. Unfortunately, many news outlets did not give justice to these accomplishments. For the state of Ohio, agriculture is a very important industry and the changes that Trump has made, has helped ease the burden of too much regulation on our farmers.

As a young agriculture professional myself, I would like to recognize the Administration for his Executive Order to repeal the Waters of the U.S. Rule.

During the Obama Presidency, the Waters of the U.S. Rule had been strictly defined to apply to “navigable waterways” and interpreted to mean that even ditches or potholes could be regulated by the EPA. This was a huge overreach of the government. Thankfully, President Trump took back this absurd definition, and signed an EO to repeal WOTUS and give farmers back more power over their own property.

This is a major win for agriculture and rural America and deserves to be celebrated. Trump has proven in his first year as President that he is listening to farmers and understands the burdens of regulation. There is still much work to be done with hopefully a new Farm Bill in 2018 that will satisfy the agriculture industry, but as someone who works in agriculture I am thankful for the progress made thus far by this Presidency. Ohio farmers should be very pleased with the support that Trump has for us on WOTUS and other unnecessary regulations such as the reporting of livestock emissions and the ban on chlorpyrifos.

Micaela Wright

Arcanum