In November 2007, the Ohio Department
of Agriculture, in cooperation with American Farmland
Trust (AFT), the Farmland Center, OSU’s Center
for Farmland Policy Innovation, Otterbein College,
and Tecumseh Land Trust, hosted the eighth annual
Ohio Farmland Preservation Summit in Reynoldsburg.
More than 260 farmers, landowners, local officials,
land trusts, and interested citizens attended the
largest annual statewide farmland preservation summit
in the nation.
First Lady Frances Strickland was
the keynote speaker discussing the summit’s
theme, Growing Our Economy Through Agriculture. Exhibitors,
the artistic Farmscape display, Northstar Café,
and the summit speakers connected the dots for attendees
on the importance and strategy of farm profitability
and its relationship to protecting agricultural land.
Other highlights included experts from Maine’s
Farms for the Future program, New York State’s
AFT, OSU, and Wayne County.
