Having considered previously joining a monastic community or religious order and being turned down due to my multiple medical restrictions, I have been looking into what I would need to do to start a worker-owned cooperative farm in the Dayton, Ohio area. I currently have the greenhorns manual to cooperative farming on pdf (https://greenhorns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Greenhorns_Cooperative_Farming_Guidebook.pdf) and I have finished watching a presentation on cooperative farming here: (https://institute.coop/introduction-worker-cooperatives-farmers-and-start-ups)

I also looked over this intruductory guide: (https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-08-22/how-to-start-a-worker-owned-cooperative-farm/)

I am only aware of one other cooperative farm in the Dayton area: (http://www.missionofmary.org)

I need to decide whether it would be easier to start a new cooperative or join an existing one. I could always contact the one in Dayton for help getting started. I was hoping some of the members on this forum with experience in a cooperative farm could help me get started.

Hey and great idea! Would be really awesome if it works out for you.

I would suggest working on a farm as similar to the one you envision as you can find, first. After you put a good season or three in, then you can take what you've learned and apply it directly to your own farm...You can save a lot of guessing and trial and error this way!

Of course, that all depends on your current experience level. If you have successfully been gardening/farming already, then maybe it is time for you to try and put your dreams into reality. It would be a lot easier for you to market to other help/partners and customers if you have a positive track record of producing.

A lot also depends on gauging local interest in the idea. I would search Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus Meetup.com sites, facebook groups, and craigslist community section to get the feelers out there.

I hope you succeed!