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CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT



                                       IFO Conference Announcement

     The Innovative Farmers of Ohio extends an ivitation to all SANETERS to
attend it's Fourth Annual Conference which has the theme: "Sustaining Rural
Communities."

     This one day meeting will be held on Saturday, January 18, 1997 at the
Proctor Conference Center near London, Ohio, about 30 miles south of
Columbus.

     If you are interested in attending(or just interested), please send me
an email and I'll mail to you the conference registration information and
program.

     Sarah Vogel, North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture, will be the
keynote speaker.  She will describe the new generation of farmer cooperatives
that have been so successfully organized in North Dakota.  Robert Leader,
Projects Manager for the Indiana Farmers Union, will also be on the program
and will talk about the small processing plant for pressing soybean oil that
he has built and the cooperative he is working with to market oil-based
products.  The focus of these two speakers on cooperatives and value-added
enterprises will contribute to the conference theme.  Several workshops on
related topics are scheduled as is a presentation by Professor Fred Blackmer,
Iowa State University, who will speak about the importance of healthy soil in
sustainable agriculture.  IFO farmer-members who conducted research on their
farms in cooperation with Ohio State University faculty will make reports
with posters and exhibits.

     We think the IFO Conference Planning Committee has put together an
excellent program, well worth your consideration.  If you can't attend but
would like to see a summary/proceedings, let me know by email and I'll put
you on the list to receive it some time down the road.

     For your interest, the Innovative Farmers of Ohio is a grass roots
farmer network dedicated to promoting, through research, education and
community-building activities an agriculture that "preserves and strengthens
the economic, social and environmental well being of Ohio's farms, farm
families and rural communities."
The organization, patterned after and inspired by the Practical Farmers of
Iowa, is five years old and has 125 active members.

Keith Dix
IFO Program Coordinator
1842 Bell Rd.
Wooster  OH  44691
Phone: 330-262-1842
FAX: 330-262-8978
email: kdix814@aol.com