Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Erica Hawkins says the department is most concerned that disease killed the animals found near the corner of Agler and Sunbury Roads.

“The vet actually is going to take a livestock trailer out and pick up the bodies and pick them back to ODA,” Hawkins said.

“They’ll be looked over and examined physically one more time. If we can’t come up with a clear cause I don’t know if we’ll be doing further testing.”

Hawkins says the department is not advising nearby farmers to keep animals inside or make any other changes to their normal routine.

On Columbus’s north side, a new store near the corner of High Street and Morse Road has become a resource for urban farmers.

Shawn Fiegelist owns and operates City Folk’s Farm Shop. It’s a small corner store that offers chicken feed, cheese making kits, and everything in between to help people live off a little bit of land.

Fiegelist say she’s always had a passion for homesteading and growing her own food. She opened the store last March after growing frustrated with having to drive up to two hours to find supplies.

There are other people who are like me. I knew some of those people so I knew there were people who were looking for this sort of thing and not finding it. And there’s also a big push to buy locally, so that helps us, as well.

She says business has been steady, even really good at times. Over the last ten months, City Folk’s has evolved into more than just a store.

“If somebody’s looking for something specific or some sort of specific information, there are a lot of people that come through the doors, so we keep track of those folks and pass on information that way,” Fiegelist says.

“We have classes and workshops, so people who are interested in doing, let’s see what we’ve got coming up. We’ve got ‘Making Bee’s Wax Candles’, ‘Edible Medicine’, there’s a bee-keeping class, there’s a classroom for the urban coop…”

It’s hard to tell just how many urban farmers there are. They range from people growing tomatoes on an apartment balcony to full-scale commercial farms inside abandoned factories. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says about 15 percent of the nation’s food supply is now grown in urban areas, and cities including Columbus have loosened zoning rules allowing people to grow crops and raise livestock.

That includes Joseph Swain, owner of Swainway Urban Farm in Clintonville. He started farming four years ago, and it’s grown from a hobby to a career. He’s transformed his third-of-an-acre property into a commercial farm producing raspberries, mushrooms, and dozens of herbs and vegetables he sells at local farmers’ markets.

We do have to take some different strategies and techniques to kind of compete with people who have vast amounts of land, so we focus on high-value crops and growing crops really intensively.

He buys supplies from the City Folk’s Farm Shop, and has started supplying the store with some of his seedlings.

“What Shawn is doing is really fantastic. She does an awesome job at connecting with local businesses and other organizations to provide education and outreach programs. And I think it’s really important to support businesses like that to ensure the success of our community.”

Shawn Fiegelist hopes her shop will teach even more people about the benefits of urban farming.

“It’s a wide, wide group of people. It’s all sorts of people, all income levels. Clintonville obviously is a place I think that a lot of people think it’s going on. But it’s not just Clintonville, it really is all over the city.”

Experts say the corn yield numbers are expected to intensify the debate over whether corn should be used for fuel or food.

Competition for corn is keen. Cattle, pork, and poultry producers need millions of bushels to feed their animals.

There’s also a federally-mandated renewable fuel standard that gobbles up about 37 percent of the U.S. corn crop for ethanol production.

This year, Ohio State University agricultural economist Matt Roberts says there likely won’t be enough U.S. corn supply to meet demand.

“Oh, there will have to be rationing of demand. Undoubtedly,” Roberts says.

Cash corn prices have already topped $8 per bushel as traders anticipate lower crop yields. Roberts says somehow, demand for corn will have to be lowered.

“By the way, there’s a huge question right now…where that reduction is going to happen?”

Meat, dairy and poultry industry groups say during this drought year too much corn is being used to produce ethanol.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel standard requires production of 11 billion gallons of ethanol this year.

Reporter: “But that requirement, is that independent of any price mechanism that goes on? I mean if ethanol gets higher than crude oil because of drought conditions, do you still have to produce 11 billion gallons of ethanol?”

Roberts: “Under the current law, you do.”

U.S. secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack defends the ethanol requirement. He says even with drought conditions throughout the Corn Belt, he thinks calls for ethanol production limits are premature.

“I’m a strong supporter of the renewable fuel standard,” Vilsack says.

“It’s providing choice at the pump. It’s providing less-costly gas. It’s reducing our reliance on foreign oil. It’s creating economic opportunity for farms. It’s a job creator.”

Vilsack says higher corn prices might already be limiting exports, and liquidation of some cattle herds will also lower demand for corn.

The USDA releases its corn harvest estimate on Friday. Economist Matt Roberts says the Ohio crop could be reduced by 20 to 40 percent.

More severe or extreme drought conditions are reported in other Midwest states, so corn yields in those states could be even lower.

Vilsack planned Friday to visit the Ohio State Fair in Columbus and was expected to talk about the drought at the Ohio Agricultural Council breakfast.

This week, 218 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states were added to the federal government’s list of natural disaster areas as Vilsack unveiled new help for frustrated, cash-strapped farmers and ranchers grappling with extreme dryness and heat. That means more than half of all U.S. counties have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, mostly due to drought.

State officials said last week that most of Ohio was in a moderate drought. It was more severe in northwest and west-central Ohio.

Mapping The U.S. Drought

View an NPR interactive map and chart to see how conditions have changed since January 2011.

Ohio farms are suffering from a continued lack of rain.

The national drought is being called the worst since 1956. So far, Ohio isn’t as hard-hit as neighboring Indiana, but in western Ohio especially, farmers have already written off much of their crop. For a closer look at how farmers are coping, Ohio Public Radio’s Bill Cohen spoke with Ryan McClure, who farms 4,000 acres in Pauling County.

Click the play button above to hear their conversation.

Lawmakers on the House Agriculture committee voted strictly along party lines to approve the deal that would put into effect in Ohio the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement signed in 2005 by eight states and two Canadian provinces seeks to protect the Great Lakes from massive withdrawals of water. This is the second time around for the Great Lakes Compact legislation – last year’s try earned lawmakers the one and only veto that Gov. John Kasich has issued.

There have been some changes to the bill, but most supporters who liked it before still do.

Larry Antosh from the Ohio Farm Bureau said the bill accomplishes the objectives of the Compact and promotes stewardship of Ohio’s water resources.

“Ensuring a safe, sustainable supply of water to meet the needs of today’s and future generations, protects existing private property rights associated with surface and ground water, and promotes economic development and job creation by recognizing that abundant fresh water is a highly desirable commodity,” Antosh said.

The bill cuts in half the amount of water that can be taken from Lake Erie 2.5 million gallons without a permit. But most environmental activists say the Ohio proposal doesn’t do enough to safeguard the tributaries and streams that run into Lake Erie.

And some are very concerned about provisions allowing for withdrawals to be capped but averaged not daily, but over as long as 90 days. Sam Speck was the director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for eight years under Republican Gov. Bob Taft.

“Over 90 days is a total of nine million gallons you could take, and the way it’s currently written, you could do all that in one day. And of course that’s a way in which you could destroy a stream or the fishery in that stream,” Speck said.

That’s never happened before and is extremely unlikely, says the Republican lawmaker who worked with Gov. Kasich on this compromise – Rep. Lynn Wachtmann of northwest Ohio.

“The fact is that in Ohio’s history, we’ve never had a single problem with that. And up until now, there has been no regulation in Ohio except for reporting withdrawal. So the lies being told by some of the environmental groups that we’re repealing safeguards in place is simply that – a lie,” Wachtmann said.

But Jack Shaner with the Ohio Environmental Council says just because it’s never happened before doesn’t mean it couldn’t now, for one big reason – fracking.

“Well, look out, you’re going to see that now with the oil and gas industry. You know, we’ve never seen these kinds of withdrawals concentrated – and these are in parts of the state with very low water resources to begin with, over there in eastern Ohio,” Shaner said.

But Ag committee chair David Hall of Millersburg in northern Ohio – near where some fracking activity has been going on – says he’s not worried about drillers pulling millions of gallons of water from vulnerable streams.

“They’re working with a lot of cities right now – the potential of using city water and using the untreated water first. So I don’t see that being an addressed issue that we need to look at.”

Environmental activists are also very concerned about a provision of the bill that limits who can challenge the state over permits. The bill allows only water users who can prove an economic or property injury related to a withdrawal to appeal permits – not those who use the water for recreation or other activities. Former ODNR director Speck says he thinks if the bill passes, that will end up in court.

Here on Main Street in downtown Lancaster a handful of restaurants offer patrons menu items ranging from pizza and spinach quiche to mocha freezes to sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches. While these restaurants and thousands of others prepare and serve their specialty plates, congress is considering new regulations to promote food safety. On this week-day morning, Michelle Lutz of Lancaster is walking to her job about a block away at Job and Family Services. She says there’s always room for improvement when it comes to food safety.

“Obviously because there are things that go on out there.”Says Lutz. “So food safety should be important to Congress because people’s well-being should be there number one priority.”

In fact, food recalls in the past several years involving spinach, peanuts, and other food products have prompted the U-S house and senate to consider separate measures to boost food safety. The Centers for Disease Control estimates as many as 76-million cases of food-borne illnesses annually in the U-S. The pending bills would require the Food and Drug Administration to more closely monitor farms and food processing plants and make it easier to find sources of food-borne illnesses . But, Jim O’Hara, formerly with the FDA, and current Director of the National Produce Safety Project says the proposed uniform standards are also problematic. “I mean how do you get it right for farms in California, New York, Ohio, Georgia. How do you get it right for different crops like leafy greens, tomatoes, melons.” O’Hara says.

Agricultural economist John Ikerd of the University of Missouri says a uniform national food safety bill could have what he calls “deleterious effects” on smaller farms if they’re required to file and follow complex sanitation rules, keep more records and be subject to more government inspections. Bob Jones, owner of the Chef’s Garden farm in Huron, Ohio is more direct. He says the proposed new rules would cut or eliminate profits.

“There are national proposals floating around right now that are a one size fits all model that would put at least 90 percent of the farms in Ohio out of business if they were to come to fruition.” Says Jones. Jones grows vegetables and herbs, that he supplies to restaurants in Columbus and other parts of the state. He’s part of an expanding local food movement that telescopes the time between a vegetable leaving the field to landing on a dinner plate.

“The standard that we use in our personal operation is we want product on the plate in 24 hours. Now in most instances that works. Two to three days old is the longest we want that product to be.” Jones says with highly perishable product, tight timetables and thin profit margins he constantly monitors the safety of his produce. Ohio Farmer magazine editor Tim White says Jones’ farm is situated on the eastern edge of what’s called Ohio’s ‘muck-growing region’ stretching from Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky to Celeryville.

“In that area around Celeryville, Ohio we produce a great deal of radishes.” Says White. “One of the biggest radish farms in the country and carrots and then also scattered around there’s also some cucumber production.”

White says a small amount of celery is also grown in Celeryville. Farther west, near the Indiana border, farms are generally larger with one dominant crop.

“We do have in Napolean the largest Campbell soup factory that produces tomato soup in the country.”

White and Bob Jones both say there is and have been rules in place to inspect conditions on the farm to assure a safe food supply. But, the proposed federal rules would impose stricter safety measures, in part, to assure consumers like Michelle Lutz of Lancaster.

“Of course, I wash all my vegetables, even the bagged lettuce when you pull it out you still wash it. You do the best that you can and you’ve just gotta hope the government’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing to make us all safe.”

Tom Borgerding WOSU News.

The plan is part of a 10-year strategy to expand college curriculum that focus on Ohio’s most successful industries. Strickland said the plan will increase opportunities for students and create Ohio jobs.

“It’s an effort to increase Ohioans access to higher education and to increase our ability to use university research to spur economic development across our state,” Strickland said.

The governor said that Ohio State will be the leading researcher for the food and agriculture industry. The College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is already a leading researcher for the industry, but Dean Bobby Mosser said he thinks the program will expand the college.

“It will help us to recruit future faculty, researchers, professors to Ohio State University to help us recruit outstanding students and it will also help us connect with the industry that’s around the state,” Mosser said.

While Ohio State said it will fund the majority of the college’s expansion, the state plans to allocate $8 million dollars to universities that take part in the program.

Every year Madison County is home to one of the biggest agricultural showcases in the country; the Farm Science Review. The review’s Chuck Gamble likens the recent turns in the farm economy to an amusement park ride.

“We’ve been on a roller coaster ride,” Gamble says. “We’ve seen the highest prices ever paid in the last year. And that’s probably the best way that I can describe ag, in the last year to year-and-a-half, it’s been very volatile.”

While Gamble keeps track of the big picture, farmer Roger Stockwell works to keep his family farm enterprise intact while riding out the ups and downs.

“That air’s still coming out of the east isn’t it? Northeast it’s cold “

Stockwell’s family has farmed this land near the Madison County, Fayette County line for almost 70 years

“Mom and Dad and my brother and sister and I, we moved here in 1941,” Stockwell says.

Today the Stockwell family farms about 1,300 acres.

“This field will go into corn, it was in beans last year. And this field is in wheat, it’ll go in corn,” Stockwell says.

Stockwell has coffee every morning at the local truck stop. There he reminisces about the bountiful crop his family and many other Ohio farmers had in 2008.

“Last year was the most profitable year I ever had in farming,” Stockwell says.

During harvest last year, Stockwell and other farmers were paid record high prices for corn, soy beans and wheat. Soy beans, for example, topped out at $16 a bushel. But this year farmers face higher production costs while crop prices have fallen by about a third. Soy bean prices are now down around $10 per bushel.

“This is uncharted waters for us as far as farmers,” Stockwell says. “We’ve never seen the prices we had last year. Now we’re down about half of what we were.”

“Seed costs are higher,” Stockwell says. “Last year we paid $150, $160 for a bag of seed corn; this year it’s going to be almost $200. Soy bean seed is higher also. But our expenses are definitely going to be higher than they were last year.”

And that will undoubtedly affect farm related businesses. In London, the county seat, about 20 miles north of Stockwell’s farm, Ted Miller sells John Deere tractors and farm equipment. Miller says his dealership is still benefiting from last year’s robust farm economy

“We aren’t seeing brand new orders coming in but we’re seeing the effects of last year’s early orders and that products coming through our shops now so the lull or dip we really haven’t seen quite yet in machinery,” Miller says.

But Miller says this year’s orders will be the telltale sign of how well farmers are doing. During last year’s agricultural boom, pieces of equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars were selling well, but this year’s outlook makes farmers more cautious.

“You’re walking under the largest combine that John Deere makes, the 9870 STS Combine. It takes up to a 35-foot flex head for beans and 12-row corn heads.”

Across from the courthouse downtown, Steve Adams works as an agricultural loan officer at Advantage Bank. He, too, keeps an eye on grain and livestock prices.

“One of the biggest concerns we’ve all got is whether the prices will stabilize and if we have a drop in prices with the cost of inputs being a lot higher this year than in previous years you could see some farmers taking a loss,” Adams says. “Those with working capital can weather the storm, they’re used to it – I mean, farming’s up and down anyway but the biggest difference this year is what the market does and what the market bears and how much they can gross.”

As Adams considers loan applications in London, Roger Stockwell keeps close track of financial margins.

“I think we’re going to have to be very careful about what we spend our money on,” Stockwell says. “As well as I can I’m not going to participate in the recession as such. We haven’t seen the bottom yet I don’t think.”