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by Annie Cunningham

You’ve seen Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s (OFBF) "Every Day is Earth Day to a Farmer" logo on billboards, T-shirts, bumper stickers and in print, but you can see it in a brand new place these days.

Scott Hagan painted the logo on Licking County Farm Bureau member Ed Hankinson’s barn, 4341 Worthington Road – State Route 37, three miles west of Granville. The Hankinson barn is a white barn on the north side of the road. Hagan gained fame by painting Bicentennial logos on barns in each of Ohio’s 88 counties.

"It’s a very recognizable logo, and this is such a high traffic area that it will be seen by so many people," Hagan said. "The two hands with the soil and the soybean growing out of it and the ‘Every Day is Earth Day to a Farmer’ has so much meaning to farmers and city people alike."

This activity is part of Farm Bureau’s efforts to create public awareness about agriculture. Pat Petzel, OFBF’s director of promotion and education, said "Every Day is Earth Day to a Farmer" really brings home the message of what a great job Ohio farmers do to protect the environment while producing the world’s largest and safest food supply. She hopes to work with other county Farm Bureaus and Hagan to have more barns across the state painted with the logo.

"It was almost a year process to get this project going – to find the right barn in the right area and work with Scott’s schedule, and we’re so thankful to Ed and Betty Hankinson for offering their barn," Petzel said.

The project was a cooperative funding effort by Ohio Farm Bureau and Licking County Farm Bureau, and Sherwin Williams (an OFBF member benefit provider) was a sponsor of the project.

Hagan has been painting barns for seven years. He started painting full time in 1998 when he began the project of painting barns in every Ohio county for the next three years in preparation for Ohio’s Bicentennial Celebration. He has since made painting barns his full-time occupation. Hagan received equipment and professional advice from the late Harley Warrick, a fellow Belmont County native, best known for the Mail Pouch logos he painted on barns across the country.

Caption 1: OFBF's newest promotion, the Every Day is Earth Day to a Farmer barn, is located on State Route 37 outside Granville in Licking County.

Caption 2: To learn more about barn artist Scott Hagan, visit OFBF's Web site and click on Featured Links.