HIRAM, Ohio — June and Bob Bargar of Delaware, Ohio will be presented with this year’s Stinner Award at the Innovative Farmers of Ohio annual meeting and conference Feb. 26 at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. For information and registration materials go to www.ifoh.org.
The Bargars join a list of sustainable agriculture leaders in Ohio as winners of the Stinner Award. Since 1999 Bob and June have been involved in a number of agricultural-related projects and activities through the OSU Agroecosystems Management Program, based at OARDC on the OSU campus in Wooster, Ohio.
Project
An early project was a workshop for the AMP team, with the cooperation of Denny Hall, OSU Extension, on the effects of psychological typology and cognitive styles on communication. Information from that workshop was eventually important in enhancing communications with stakeholders in the Sugar Creek project being developed by Ben Stinner, director of AMP, and Richard Moore, member of the AMP team.
Another major project took place in 2004-2005 in which they worked with Hall, the Clark County Farm Bureau and the Springfield Ohio Symphony Orchestra to produce the Agriculture and the Arts concerts, which included orchestral music and photography of farm life.
More recently at this year’s Stinner Summit, Bob Bargar discussed the need to improve communications between conventional farmers and the growing body of farmers producing local foods. The discussion explored ways farmers could work together to share perspectives and expertise.
Other interests
Bob’s other conservation interest is in water quality and stream health. He has been a board member of the Olentangy Watershed Alliance since 1999, dealing with water quality issues of farms, small communities and rural residents in the upper Olentangy River watershed. Bob has also been serving as a consultant to a National Science Foundation educational project at OARDC directed by Richard Moore, dealing with water quality and stream ecology.
In 2004, June Bargar inherited a family farm that included woodlots, a stream, 106 acres of tillable land and a pre-Civil War barn. June participated in Innovative Farmers of Ohio’s program, Women in Agriculture, and in 2008 she had the barn rebuilt over the original frame, and now is working to implement sustainable farming practices. The farm is currently enrolled in the new USDA Conservation Stewardship Program.
The Bargars were longtime friends of Ben Stinner.
