The Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau has plans to revamp and expand the Butler County Farm Tour.

Jack Cohen, bureau president, said he met Nov. 21 with several agriculture officials to discuss revitalizing the annual tour, which was canceled this year.

Because agriculture and tourism are big business in the county, Cohen said it made sense to bring them together to attract more people to the county.

“This is a big deal,” he said. “We’re getting everybody together to talk about injecting some new life in to this really amazing event.”

The tour, which has been around for nearly two decades, usually featured three farms.

Under the new model, Cohen hopes to split the county into four quadrants, with each having five farms to visit.

That means Cohen wants to attract more than 20 farms to participate in the tour, which would tentatively be held in October.

The tour, which has been free in the past, gives participants an up close and personal view of the ins and outs of farming.

Educating the public is at the top of Cohen’s list, he said, given that farming is such a huge presence in the county.

“People don’t realize how hard farmers really have to work,” he said. “We want to educate kids on where their food comes from and show them agriculture is a really big deal.”

Farming is a “huge part of the community,” he said, which is the main inspiration for why the tourism bureau wants to “revive it and step it up a bit.”

Art King, who owns Harvest Valley Farms in Valencia, was at the Nov. 21 meeting with Cohen and said he is supportive of the tourism bureau’s plan to expand the tour.

King has participated in both state and local farm tours, and he welcomes the injection of new blood into the planning phase of Butler County’s tour.

King said he’s confident that the farm tour is in the right hands.

“(The tourism bureau) has done its homework,” he said. “I know Jack has looked at other farm tours across the country, which is something I don’t have the time to do myself. So I’m pretty confident in whatever they come up with.”

Cohen said anyone interested in enlisting their farm for the tour can contact him at the tourism bureau office in Zelienople at 724-234-4619.