At 10:10 AM 7/16/00 -0400, you wrote:


>Last Fall, at the Empire State Honey Producer's meeting, I learned that
>Cornell has experts on establishing and managing agriculture coops.  I
>should not have been surprised, but I was.  Of course, given the way things
>are today they suggest that conditions are right for a co-op.  They also
>suggested that it would take $50,000 or so to prepare a feasibility study
>and then another fairly large amount for seed money.  I gather that some
>federal matching or other funds are available.


New York State has a matching funds grant program (up to $50,000) that may
be applicable here.  The rfp is located at
http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/rfp/pdf-growny.pdf, the deadline for
submitting a proposal is August 31, 2000.  (This is a matching funds grant,
feasibility studies are included as part of the admissible uses for funds).

Cheers,

Sandy