mediation

Last week, 34 State Certified Mediation Programs gathered for the Coalition of Agricultural Mediation Programs (CAMP) annual conference, including three of us from the Ohio Farm Resolution Services (OFRS) program.  Wyoming's Agricultural & Natural Resource Mediation Program hosted us in Laramie, Wyoming (home of the University of Wyoming College of Law, where I earned my law degree!).  Our OFRS team gained information and insight that will help us help Ohio agriculture. But because our OFRS program is still quite new, many in Ohio agriculture don’t know about it or what the program can do for them. So now is good time to share what OFRS does and what we learned as we met with other state agricultural mediation programs from around the country. Here are several key points:

OFRS is Ohio’s Certified Mediation Program.  The USDA’s Farm Service Agency provides grant funding for each state to establish a certified mediation program to serve agricultural producers. The OSU Agricultural & Resource Law Program applied for the USDA grant, and in 2024 was approved to establish OFRS as the Certified Mediation Program for Ohio. The certification and funding allow us to use USDA funds to provide mediation services for no-to-little cost to agricultural producers.

Certified Mediation Programs were born from the farm financial crisis of the early 1980s.  The Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 created the framework for state Certified Mediation Programs after widespread foreclosures on farms during the 1980s financial crisis.  The goal was to provide impartial mediators who could help producers and lenders mediate financial issues, prevent litigation, and keep farms in business.

More “covered issues” has expanded the Certified Mediation Program.  Since the program’s origin in 1987, the federal government has expanded the types of “covered issues” a mediation program can help producers with in addition to agricultural loans.  The list of “covered issues” eligible for mediation services now includes compliance with farm and conservation programs, family farm transition, farmer-neighbor disputes, pesticides, wetland determinations, leasing, credit counseling, and other issues a State Department of Agriculture deems appropriate.

Our mediation services are probably broader than you think.  We have quickly learned that mediation is frequently misunderstood and conference attendees joked about the constant confusion with the practice of “meditation.”  For our program, mediation is a broad term that means using a variety of approaches to attempt to resolve agricultural issues and conflicts.  We offer “formal” structured mediations that place an impartial mediator between two parties with the goal of reaching an agreement that resolves a conflict, such as an agricultural credit problem.  But OFRS can also provide “informal” mediation services such as consultation and education, which can help farmers identify solutions for issues and conflicts that are affecting the farm, such as determining how to transition the operation to the next generation or resolve a drainage problem with a neighbor. The common thread is that our staff steps in to share knowledge and strategies to help an agricultural producer make decisions or overcome an issue or conflict, whether formally or informally.  Meditation is not under our mediation umbrella, however.

Mediators must be “qualified.”  USDA requires a mediator in a state mediation program to be qualified either by meeting state mediation licensing or training requirements or, if none, by completing a minimum of 40 hours of approved mediator training and an additional 20 hours of training every two years.  Mediation training emphasizes building skills for listening, maintaining neutrality, facilitating conversations, negotiating conflicts, and enabling problem solving.  We’ve learned, both through our work and from the CAMP conference, that qualified, trained mediators can benefit Ohio agriculture immensely.

Farm stress is a concern among State Certified Mediation Programs.  The CAMP agenda focused largely on helping producers deal with farm financial stress. Keynote speaker and agricultural attorney Sarah Vogel, who navigated producers through the farm financial crisis of the 1980’s, shared insights into the financial challenges today’s farmers may face. Sarah is currently working to encourage Attorney Generals in each state to understand and monitor financial legal developments that could negatively impact agricultural producers in their states.  Other CAMP conference sessions concentrated on developing skills for working with agricultural lenders and understanding how other stressors such as climate and weather can affect agricultural operations.

But family farm transition has become a common mediation service for state programs.  While agricultural credit problems were the impetus for USDA’s Certified Mediation Program, many state programs now spend most of their efforts on meeting farm transition needs. OFRS is one of them.  About 70% of our mediation docket consists of working with families on farm transition and family communication needs. Mediating business practices, farm leases, and farm-neighbor disputes rounded out our mediation work in the first two years of OFRS.

Funding for state mediation programs is usually in jeopardy.  At the conference, longtime mediation professionals shared that because the USDA’s Certified Mediation Program depends upon federal funding, program funding is not stable and instead is on a perpetual roller coaster ride.  The Trump administration, for example, proposed zeroing out funding for the program the past two years, stating that farmers should pay for their own mediation needs.  But Congress disagreed, funded the program in the last budget, and currently proposes continued funding for 2027. For the time being, it appears our OFRS program will have funding for at least for another year.

Do you need our mediation services?  Are you an agricultural producer who's trying to sort through an issue or conflict?  If so, learn more about OFRS and check out our team of five qualified mediators at farmoffice.osu.edu/ofrs.  Consider what we can do for you, and contact us at ofrsmediation@osu.edu.