• Cooperative Ohio Research, Education & Extension Service Partners
• Direct Marketing, Value-Added Opportunities for Agriculture, Ohio State University.
• Ohio Department of Agriculture
• Ohio Fact Sheet, Economic Research Service, USDA - This specific fact sheet includes current data on population, per capita income, earnings per job, poverty rates, employment, unemployment, farm and farm-related jobs, farm characteristics, farm financial characteristics, top ag commodities, top export commodities and top counties in ag sales.
• Ohio Farmers' Markets
• Ohio Marketing Profile
• Ohio USDA Rural Development
• More Links
  • The Agripreneur focuses on small business management and policies affecting small business, economic development in communities or regions and the tradeoff between economic development in a specific geographic area and criteria such as a project's ROI.
  • Food Processing Food Safety Division, Ohio Department of Agriculture.
  • Food Science & Technology facilities (including pilot plants), Ohio State University.
  • Governor's Office of Appalachia (GOA) facilitates economic and social development in the 29 Appalachian counties of Ohio. GOA advises local groups and residents of possible funding sources and methods for addressing problems and acts as a liaison to connect people and resources.
  • Heartland Agdeavor Association - This nonprofit corporation enhances farm income by providing investment opportunities in businesses that add value to agricultural commodities.
  • Ohio Cooperative Development Center (OCDC) provides assistance for firms that are interested in organizing a cooperative. The Center also has grant funds. Two types of grants will be made available to recipients. One type focuses on feasibility and pre-feasibility study grants. Applicants should apply for pre-feasibility study grants if they are new groups who are interested in forming a cooperative but need to uncover some preliminary information to determine if a full feasibility study is worthwhile. The second type of grant focuses on hiring of services (that is, legal or financial) or the development of marketing materials. This money is to be used to provide expertise to your cooperative or to assist in developing marketing materials to highlight the cooperative business.
  • Ohio Department of Development promotes economic opportunities to improve the profits and prosperity of Ohio's citizens. The Department provides financial, informational and technical assistance to those making an investment in Ohio's future.
  • Ohio Proud is for food or agricultural producers who have a product that is at least 50 percent grown, raised or processed in Ohio. Benefits of membership include cooperative marketing programs, special promotions, a presence at industry trade shows, networking opportunities, educational and training seminars, and advertising, including radio, newspaper, industry publications and direct mail pieces.
    • Liana Lee, Chief Division of Markets, lee@odant.agri.state.oh.us
  • Ohio State Food Science, Ohio State University.
  • The Ohio State University provides a series of discussion items about entrepreneurial startups, value-added ag businesses and other opportunities.
  • The Ohio State University Farm Income Enhancement (FIE) Program develops concepts to enhance income and promote long-term stability in Ohio agriculture.
  • The Small Business Resource is designed to help business owners and entrepreneurs solve problems and locate key public and private organizations and individuals. These are business decision makers- - businessmen and women looking to expand their operations, relocate companies and plan a business startup.

Individual contacts in Ohio for specific value-added agriculture information: