COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Farm Bureau said farmers may find themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to property rights, but state lawmakers introduced legislation in an attempt to change that.

What You Need To Know

  • House Bill 64 aims to modify the law regarding eminent domain

  • Eminent domain is the right of a government to acquire private property for public use with payment of compensation

  • Each week, agriculture expert Andy Vance joins Chuck Ringwalt to discuss a topic within the agriculture industry

According to the Ohio Farm Bureau, the state lags behind others in protections for landowners. 

"In fact, when Ohio landowners are faced with losing property rights through eminent domain, the present law makes it difficult for them to defend their own interests and they often find themselves at a disadvantage," the bureau said in a release.

Agriculture expert Andy Vance discussed the topic in this week's edition of the Ag Report.

"The concept of eminent domain is that sometimes there are public uses of land, that it's better for the state, the federal government or some local entity to say, 'Hey. We're going to take this land and put it to a different use.' It might be something like putting in the highway, utilities, some public good where the government has to get involved and say, 'Hey. You need to sell this land to us for this purpose," Vance said.

"One of the things that [Ohio] Farm Bureau is supporting right now is called House Bill 64. It's in the state legislature here. And the idea of the bill is that Ohio is behind the times compared to other states and how it protects landowners from eminent domain and also would shift the way that farmers can essentially stand up for themselves," Vance said.