In 1998 faculty, staff, and directors of The Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) agreed to begin a research and outreach program to serve Ohio’s organic farmers. The initiative is called the Organic Food and Farming Education and Research program or OFFER. Efforts officially began in 1999 with preparation of research areas at Wooster and implementation of a survey to assess the needs of organic producers as well as producers who are in transition to using organic systems.
The survey was organized by a committee consisting of:
A total of 1,086 questionnaires were mailed on April 30, 1999, to the combined mailing lists of OEFFA, both Ohio chapters of the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA), and the Innovative Farmers of Ohio. Each mailing included a five-page producer questionnaire section and a one-page consumer questionnaire. The deadline for submitting survey responses was set at May 31, 1999.
One hundred and fifty farmers returned producer questionnaires through the months of May and June. Nine of these classified themselves as all conventional. Survey results were compiled on the remaining 141 producers of organic commodities. OEFFA leaders estimate there are currently 250 organic producers in the state. Thus, survey responses are from slightly more than half the known number of Ohio organic growers.
It was anticipated that a variety of organic farm systems would be represented in Ohio. As a result, approximately half the producer questions were open-ended to allow respondents flexibility in responses. Whenever possible, responses were grouped by similarity for frequency tables. Readers of this report may be interested in the detailed, individual responses compiled in separate documents available upon request from the author.
Two hundred eighteen consumer questionnaires were returned. A separate report compiled by Richard Moore will discuss the analysis and results related to consumer interest in organically produced food.