Logo contest: OEFFA

What we do:

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1979. It is a grassroots coalition of farmers, backyard gardeners, consumers, retailers, educators, researchers, and others who share a desire to build a healthy food system that brings prosperity to family farmers, meets the growing consumer demand for local food, creates economic opportunities for our rural communities, and safeguards the environment. For more than 30 years, OEFFA has used education, advocacy, grassroots organizing, and organic certification services to promote local and organic food systems, helping farmers and consumers reconnect and together build a sustainable food system, one meal at a time. OEFFA’s Begin Farming Program, for which this logo will be designed specifically, is targeted at training the next generation of organic and sustainable farmers. The program’s three goals are to: (1) Increase the number of aspiring farmers ready to begin farming independently; (2) Improve the success of beginning farmers who already have their own farming operations; (3) Increase access to capital and affordable farmland for both aspiring and new farmers.

Targets include, but not limited to: young farmers, beginning farmers, aspiring farmers, second career farmers, age ranges from 18-55 but many in their 30’s, male and female, Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan predominantly), rural and urban. Interests and values include: sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture, ecological agriculture, production scale agriculture, farmers markets, vegetables, season extension, pasture and grass-fed livestock and poultry, homesteading, green living, healthy eating, and self-employment/self-sufficiency.

The green that appears in our main logo is CMYK (C=77, M=0, Y=97, K=31) or Pantone (7731). We would like to see this color carry over into the Begin Farming logo as well. The other colors we’ve been using as part of this program’s materials are: dark brown, tan, and white, but we are open to other ideas, including colors that convey diversity (vs. monoculture) in farming systems.

Playing on the idea of “Next Farm Team” and “Fielding the Next Farm Team,” the logo could convey a baseball theme (see Begin Farming brochure provided). However, we do not like the idea of portraying a standard baseball field because it does not represent diverse, sustainable agriculture. Baseball fields are often sprayed with chemicals and turf is considered a “monocrop” so perhaps there is a way to keep the baseball/team theme, while still conveying the message of sustainable farming. We would appreciate submissions that play on the