How Ohio Farms and Ag-Related Businesses Are Adapting to COVID-19

When COVID-19 swept the globe at the beginning of 2020, the world turned upside down in the blink of an eye. Businesses, churches, schools, and restaurants shut down until governments could decide how best to move forward in light of a widespread pandemic.

While this large-scale shutdown crippled many industries, those in the agriculture sector found themselves uniquely situated.

Many had the opportunity to change their business models to adapt to what is now widely considered “the new normal.”

Watershed Distillery in Columbus

Greg Lehman of Watershed Distillery dabbled in sales and pharmaceuticals before diving into entrepreneurship to make his mark on the community where he grew up.

Lehman and his business partner launched Watershed Distillery in 2010 and now have more than 50 employees. Understandably, the pandemic required them to shift gears, and quickly.

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On March 15, with the temporary closing of restaurants, Lehman pondered how to move forward while keeping his employees on board. After discussing a multitude of options, he and his team came up with a clever solution.

“We’d seen a couple of other distilleries produce hand sanitizer and admired their quick pivots to help their communities stay safe,” Lehman says. “Given that we had members of our team whose family members were on the front line without much or any access to sanitizer, we felt even more compelled to jump in and do the same.”

Clardale Farms in Canal Fulton

Frank Burkett operates a fifth-generation family-owned dairy farm. In addition to milking almost 700 holsteins three times a day, Clardale Farms ships about 90 pounds of milk per cow per day, sells dairy cows, and farms around 1,000 acres. It takes multiple family members and several full-time employees to keep the business running.

“We’ve had to make several changes since COVID-19,” Burkett says. “One of the biggest changes we’ve made is doing more things electronically. We’ve always used technology on the farm, but this has ratcheted it up.”

While Burkett and his team look forward to the days when they can reopen their farm to visitors and gather in staff meetings again, he says he’s especially honored to be a part of the agricultural community in times like these.

“Across the nation, we’ve seen men and women in agriculture step up,” Burkett says. “We have a lot of reasons to be proud of American farmers and ranchers, especially with how they’re continuing to feed the nation despite the challenges we’re facing.”

Champaign County Virtual Farmers Market

“Our virtual farmers market, Champaign Locally Grown, was such a new concept back in 2011,” Pam Bowshier says. She owns Cosmic Charlie Bread and co-manages the market with Mark Runyan, owner of Oakview Farm Meats. “But we quickly became our own entity and are now the strongest market in the county.” Having operated out of the lobby of the local YMCA since its launch almost 10 years ago, COVID-19 presented a new dilemma. The YMCA was forced to shut down, leaving the market – for the first time – without a home base.

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Rather than halt operations, Bowshier and Runyan decided to change locations. They moved to the site of Oakview Farm Meats and tripled in size within one week.

Shoppers are able to shop online from the safety of their own home and pick up their orders at the new location.

“Many of our new customers said they were concerned about shopping in public places during the pandemic, and they had more of a desire to know where their food came from,” Bowshier explains.

Since March, the market has seen record numbers in both sales and customers.

“Customers liked the centrally located farm for pickup, being able to relax in their cars while we loaded their orders into their trunks, the contactless form of shopping, and having a genuine farm experience,” she says.