COLUMBUS - The three public seats on the state's rule-making committee for livestock megafarms will be filled by farmers, a move critics said was not truly representative of the public.

        The new members announced Wednesday include George Slater, a farmer on a board of the Ohio Farmers Union, whose representative was kicked off the committee in June because the Agriculture Department said the organization did not qualify as a public member.

        Mr. Slater is representing himself on the committee, not the Farmers Union, said Deborah Abbott, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman.

        “Mr. Slater has been an interested individual in this process,” Ms. Abbott said. “The fact that he has a membership in the organization was not a problem.”

        The Concentrated Animal Feeding Advisory Committee is responsible for advising the Ohio Department of Agriculture in setting rules for megafarm operations. Neighbors of the farms have complained for years about foul air and polluted creeks as well as insect and rodent infestations caused by the amount of manure at such farms.

        The new members are: Gerald Boynton, a retired farmer from Williams County; Tom Price, a Delaware County hog farmer who also has a composting operation; and Mr. Slater, who has a 75-head cattle farm about two miles north of Caldwell in Noble County.

        Mr. Slater is a member of the executive committee of the Ohio Farmers Union, which represents family farmers.

        Its slot as a public member of the rule-making committee was eliminated on June 11, along with one held by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, after Agriculture Director Fred Dailey determined that the organizations did not qualify as public members.

        Mr. Slater said his interests are broader than the union's.

        “There are times when I question our own policy,” Mr. Slater said. “I felt that ... I've got a wide spectrum of knowledge.”

        Nancy Raeder, chairwoman of the Ohio Family Farm Coalition and a frequent critic of megafarms, said that while farmers are members of the public, they have interests in the how the committee votes.

        “If you sit on the executive board of a statewide farm organization, how could you not let that paint what you're doing?” Ms. Raeder said. “This is not the public. The public is John Doe down the street who goes to the grocery store.”

        Susan Studer King of the Ohio Environmental Council, who has one of two slots on the committee set aside for environmental activists, said Mr. Price is a responsible hog farmer who is friendly to the environment, but she questioned his presence on the committee.

        “It's encouraging to see folks like him out there,” Ms. King said. “It's a question on whether he is the most appropriate appointee to represent the public. ... The (livestock) producers are well represented on the committee already.”

        The supervision of megafarms - which have at least 1,000 cattle, 2,500 hogs or 100,000 egg-laying hens - is now under the Agriculture Department after the General Assembly switched it from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

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