Related to this article about Woodbury County, see the news release pasted
below:
Woodbury County puts stock in organic farming
Iowa growers need U.S. help, official tells House lawmakers
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070419/BUSINESS01/704190381/1029/archive
4-18-07
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Contacts: David Swenson, ISU Economics, (515) 294-7458,
[log in to unmask]; Rich Pirog, Leopold Center Marketing and Food
Systems Initiative, (515) 294-1854, [log in to unmask]; or Laura
Miller, Leopold Center Communications, (515) 294-5272
MOVING FROM CONVENTIONAL TO ORGANIC: WHAT IS THE LOCAL PAYOFF?
AMES, Iowa -- Does it pay locally to help farmers convert their operations
from conventional to organic crop production? Iowa StateUniversity
economists offer some detailed answers, using as their model the unique
Woodbury County plan to provide tax abatements for producers who transition
from conventional to organic farming. The newly released study shows that
the potential regional economic impact of organic crop production exceeds
that of conventional crop production.
In work funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, David
Swenson and Liesl Eathington of the ISU economics department and Craig
Chase, an ISU Extension farm management field specialist, assess the
potential region-wide economic impact of this major switch in production
practices. They employ economic models to gauge whether the investment of
public tax monies to spur the conversion will yield long-term economic
benefits for the area's population.
The project, "Determining the methods for measuring the economic and fiscal
impacts associated with organic crop conversion in Iowa," affirms existing
ISU research which demonstrates that operators who choose organic methods
will receive greater economic returns than those who opt for conventional
practices. Next, the economic impact of that difference was measured
considering all linkages with the regional economy. The study found that the
economic impacts of the organic alternative were substantially larger than
the conventional configuration, a significant observation for those engaged
in rural and regional economic development.
Specifically, organic rotation farming produced 52 percent more gross sales
revenue, 110 percent more value added, and 182 percent more labor income
than from the same 1,000 acres farmed using conventional corn-soybean
rotation practices. According to Swenson, "the organic alternative requires
greater mechanical inputs, more labor and yields a higher return to the
operators. All of these factors combine to yield greater amounts of
income-based economic impacts in the study region." These outcomes will hold
up, he adds, even with the recent spike in corn prices as the spread between
organic and conventional crop prices has remained relatively constant.
The analysis for the effective economic use of property tax abatements as an
incentive for farmers to shift from conventional to organic production is
not as promising. The study concludes that over a reasonable period of time,
the county is not likely to recover the forgone property tax revenue used to
fund the original program with sufficient new, economic impact-driven,
property tax collections, as well as fund the county and public school
services needed by additional workers (along with their household members)
in all impacted economic sectors of the organic conversion. However, there
may be important non-economic criteria in favor of a property tax inducement
to alter farming practices. These would include environmental benefits,
diversifying agricultural production, and supporting the development of
organic foods production, processing, and consumption in the region.
The executive summary and full report can be found on the Leopold
Center's web site
at:www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/woodbury.htm.
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