Two Ohioans who for decades have advocated for sustainable agriculture won the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s 2022 stewardship and service awards.
Dean McIlvaine of Wayne County is winner of the Stewardship Award for “outstanding contributions to the cultivation of sustainable agriculture community,” and Louise Warner of Pickaway County is winner of the Service Award for “extraordinary service in support of sustainable agriculture,” a press release said. The awards are given as part of the association’s annual conference.
McIlvaine has operated since 1985 Twin Parks Organic Farm in West Salem, Ohio. In 1988, the 1,200-acre farm was certified organic by the association. McIlvaine cultivates the farm’s organic products including corn, rye, soybeans and hay, as well as livestock on the farm. He also markets the organic products.
“We are pleased to recognize Dean with this award,” Carol Goland, executive director of OEFFA, said in the press release. “For more than forty years, he has been a great ambassador for organics in Ohio, generously sharing his knowledge, encouraging others, and demonstrating through his own labors what a successful organic farm can accomplish.”
A retired physician and anesthesiologist, Warner turned farmer and educator when she and her late husband, Jack Warner, started the nonprofit Stratford Ecological Center (Educational Farm & Nature Preserve) in Delaware County in 1990. Nearly 16,000 people visit the center each year, as it hosts camps, adult programming, a farm school and community events.
“I’m stunned by the depth of her service and good work, but, even more than stunned, I am grateful, as we all should be, for the tireless-and the pioneering-efforts she has given over decades,” Goland said.
For more information about the association, visit https://www.oeffa.org.
