County Farm Bureaus Launch 2026 Campaign, Hear of Health Insurance Program
BUFFALO – Members of the four-county Ohio Farm Bureaus covering Belmont, Guernsey, Monroe and Noble counties gathered at the Mid-Eastern Career Center on a frigid, snowy January 29 to launch the four groups’ combined 2026 Membership Campaign. Brooke Koonts, organization director, welcomed members at the event that was attended by over 150.
Miranda Miser, local director for the group, addressed members on the importance of Farm Bureau membership with a short talk “Why Farm Bureau?” She reminded members of the four pillars, or principals of the organization, as highlighted in their 2026 policy planning: Feeding families, Advancing innovation, Rural resilience, and Mindful stewardship. The pillars aim to guide long-term stability and address mounting challenges faced by farmers.
Miser reminded members that the 2026 membership campaign runs through March 31. Members who sign new members or re-sign members who have lapsed for more than a year will be eligible for financial and meeting opportunity rewards.
“Annual memberships are $120 or $40 for younger members ages 18 to 24,” Miser said.
Miser also announced the group is creating an online Southeastern Ohio members-only business directory open to Farm Bureau members and businesses to promote themselves.
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Keynote speaker at the event was Adam Sharp, Ohio Farm Bureau executive vice president, who spoke on the topic of “The Value of Farm Bureau Membership.
“The Farm Bureau is the largest general farm membership organization in Ohio and the nation with over 6 million members,” Sharp said.
“ ‘The whole food system in the United States rests upon the farmer’, said Teddy Roosevelt in the early 1900s, and it is still true today.”
Sharp said many in urban and suburban communities believe there will always be enough land to produce the food and enough food to go around, but that is not guaranteed, and that’s where the role of the Farm Bureau comes in.
“Ohio has several counties in the top 24 of Farm Bureaus out of 3,000 in the in the nation,” Sharp said.
Although 2025 was good organizationally, it was a tough farm economy. While the livestock side of agri-business was not bad, except for those who had poultry disease issues, row crop farmers were not so good with high production costs and low commodity sales prices.
He also addressed property tax issues but said it was good that CAUV program, in place since 1972-3, continues to value qualified farmland to be taxed based on its agricultural production value rather than “highest and best use” market value, a 70 percent savings in some locations in the state.
The federal Farm Bill was also identified along with the “one big, beautiful bill” as being beneficial to farmers.
On the trade opportunity front, Sharp said, the organization is working on getting stability in the markets, especially for corn, wheat and soybeans.
Another issue is “land use” including pressures on farmland from data centers for land and water and solar energy production on the land use side.
“State Budget – $106 million secured in the state budget this year for Healthy Ohio Water,” Sharp said. Locally, funding for the Fairview, Hendrysburg, Mt. Olivett water project will receive funding from this program.
The Farm Bureaus in the state also push out over $200,000 in scholarships for students each year with a goal of keeping young people in the state after they their complete higher education.
Sharp also shared that the membership fees cover just one-quarter of a what it costs to serve members, the other funds generated from other sources.
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Trevor Kirkpatrick, director of Health Services at the organization’s Columbus headquarters, also spoke at the event introducing the new, members only Ohio Farm Bureau Health Care Solutions program.
Up until this year, small businesses and agribusinesses have been eligible to purchase health insurance coverage for employees through the organization. Now that is expanding.
The new program in Ohio is thanks to enabling legislation passed by the Ohio Legislature in 2025, and traces its roots to 1947 when the Tennessee Farm Bureau established a health program for members in that southern state. Prior to this year, over 250,000 members in 10 states were covered by the program.
The program targets individuals and families, “especially those who are self-employed or part of farm households,” Kirkpatrick said.
Information on the program is available online at https://ofbf.org/hcs/plans/
Also at the meeting was Danielle Dufour, regional supervisor, of the group who made the trip to Guernsey County from Ashtabula in the northeast corner of the state.
Officials in attendance included Congressman Troy Balderson, Ohio Representative Ty Moore and local representatives for Ohio Senator Jon Husted and U.S. Representative Michael Rulli.
Following the program, members broke out into groups for county strategy sessions covering topics including public policy, communication, organization, membership and involvement.
The purpose of the Ohio Farm Bureau works for Ohio farmers to advance agriculture and strengthen rural communities. The local Farm Bureau office is located on Colonel Drive on Barnesville’s east side. The phone number for the office is 740-425-3681.
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