• Soil Health,  State Policy

    Help Us Celebrate Ohio Soil Health Week!

    The Ohio Soil Health Initiative (OSHI), organized by OEFFA, is inviting you to participate in the first annual Ohio Soil Health Week from November 10-16, 2024.

    Ohio Soil Health Week provides a time and space to celebrate, honor, and protect Ohio’s soils.

    This weeklong celebration of soil health includes education opportunities and events to reach within and beyond the agriculture community and raise awareness around one of Ohio’s most valuable natural resources.

    Throughout the week, farmers, gardeners, educators, community members, and organizations from all over Ohio will celebrate with a variety of events and resource sharing.

  • Climate Change,  Conservation,  Soil Health

    Protecting Ohio’s Most Valuable Natural Resource

    Ohio Soil Health Week banner

    It is impossible to overstate the importance of what is under our feet. Healthy soil is at the root of healthy water, food, economies, and communities. When taken care of, soil has the potential to store carbon and help mitigate the climate crisis. Yet, even with all that relies on healthy soils, this natural resource is increasingly becoming lost or degraded. The value of soil is simply overlooked and those who do recognize the importance of healthy soils are without the support to preserve them.

    There is a need to educate the public on the importance of healthy soils while celebrating this natural resource. That’s why OEFFA and the Ohio Soil Health Initiative (OSHI) are planning an Ohio Soil Health Week—a weeklong celebration that will bring together farmers, community members, organizations, state leaders, and legislators to amplify different voices and share how powerful and important Ohio’s soils are.

  • General

    Cultivating Care—and Policy Change: 7 Conference Workshops You Don’t Want to Miss

    45th annual OEFFA conference: Cultivating Care

    February is quickly approaching and our policy team is preparing for another action-packed OEFFA Conference!

    We’ve put together a series of great workshop offerings focusing on a variety of policy-based topics. If you want to see how policy can bring real change in our food and farming system, you’re going to want to make time for these seven workshops at the 45th annual OEFFA conference, Cultivating Care.

    Online registration closes on February 1, so be sure to secure your three days of learning, sharing, connecting, and shopping today!

  • General

    2023 OEFFA Policy Retreat Recap

    OEFFA Policy team: Lauren, Heather, Milo, Nicole (pictured left to right)

    We are so thankful to have an impactful and close-knit policy team that plans change-making goals together. At the beginning of December, Policy Director Milo Petruziello, Grassroots Policy Organizers Lauren Hirtle and Nicole Wolcott, and Communications and Media Specialist Heather Seely got together to debrief 2023 and plan for 2024.

    The priorities we talked through included:

    • Building our interpersonal relationships;
    • Furthering our state policy and soil health work;
    • Advocating on the farm bill and federal policy;
    • Strengthening impactful connections with our member leaders; and
    • Leaning into the OEFFA Narrative in all the work we do.