Its front door opens on the enormous markets of the East. Its back door is the nation's grainbelt. It sits atop a vast aquifer that yields water so pure it's bottled. And it is at the intersection of two of the busiest interstate highways in the nation -- I-75 and I-70. What more could a food processor want?

West central Ohio -- comprised of Clark, Champaign and Fayette counties -- has always been a fertile food growing area, today chalking up $250 million a year in raw farm receipts. For this reason it also drew International Harvester, which, for three decades, was the largest maker of ag equipment in the world. (IH later evolved into the truck maker Navistar.)

Farmers in the area are among the most productive in the state. Clark County ranks fourth in the state in yield per acre. Champaign and Fayette counties are not far behind. Many farmers are diversifying into specialty crops and carving niches -- dried flowers, horseradish and raspberry salsa, to name a few. Floriculture, cattle and cannery corn thrive in a benign six-month growing season that sees plenty of rain.

West central Ohio has what the food processing industry looks for: distribution advantages, abundant water sources and excess water and sewer capacities. The city of Springfield, for example, has 13 million gallons a day of excess capacity in its water supply system and 14 million gallons a day of excess capacity in its wastewater treatment system. The area taps one of the largest aquifers in the state. In fact, the quality is so pure that Springfield tap water is bottled -- a crucial point for food processors which use a lot of water.

Blessed with abundant water from an enormous aquifer, West central Ohio is looking for niche marketers like Rothschild Berry Farm or food processing firms that need large quantities of water.

The area is also right on the corner of I-70 and I-75, so it is in an excellent distribution position for trucking of finished products. I-71 bisects Fayette County.

Food distribution is, in fact, one of the area's fastest growing industries. The area hosts M&M Supply, which supplies McDonald's in four states; the German grocer Aldi; and E.B. Brown, a distributor for Speedway and Starvin' Marvin's.

To support its agricultural and other industries, the three counties created the West Central Ohio Port Authority to buy rail lines scheduled for abandonment. The lines are leased to the Indiana & Ohio shortline for day-to-day operations. The service-oriented I&O picks up customers forgotten by the bigger railroads.

"The big rail lines don't want to deal with less than 500 cars at a time," explains J.C. Wallace, vice president of economic development of the Springfield-Clark County Chamber of Commerce. "The I&O can provide three or four rail cars to a smaller customer. You also get a higher level of customer service with a shortline -- the extra switch, or spotting the cars where they really need to be."

Most of the outbound cargo on the I&O is corn and soybeans, shipped out to feed poultry and hogs in the Southeast. Farm chemicals -- phosphate from Florida and potash from Canada -- are the main inbound cargoes.

The I&O has connections to multiple Class I railroads -- Canadian National, CSXT and Conrail.

Strong in farm production and equally potent in distribution, West Central Ohio is seeking the missing element -- the food processor.

"We export way too much of our grain and soybeans," says Wallace. "We've got the ingredients; we're looking for the processors."

Each of the three counties offers several large rail-served parcels next to the aquifer.

	Meigs County		Pike County
	Mid-Ohio / Obetz and Gahanna		Mercer and Auglaize Counties
	Hardin County		Marion County
	Village of Leipsic		West Central Ohio
	Medina County		Fostoria