Ripple Effect

Ripple Effect

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Michael Stolp is an agricultural economist who works with Northwest Farm Credit Services. They recently completed a study on the economic power of agriculture forestry and fisheries in the Northwest. But as Michael points out, there is a huge ripple effect in these economies that is a lot more than just a point of sale. "The economic impact is not necessarily the direct sale from the farmer to the warehouse or packing house. The economic impact really is defined as the ripple of that initial production throughout the economy. It is the collective impact of the farmer and his or her sales, the farmer and his or her purchases and even the down stream affects of the employees of the input supply provider and how they purchase things in economy like groceries. This is a broad look at agriculture and how, if that wasn’t present, what would be the impact of the immediate lost sales but also, the impact of the full downstream effect. Even better, this is more than just dollars, it looks at jobs. For instance, if we understand in the total Northwest, the total economic impact of this industry is $176 billion. That's big and we understand that $176 billion as the direct effect as well as the downstream impact. Think about that rock thrown in a pond and the ripple affect. That's one thing but how many jobs is that? in the entire Northwest that job factor is 186,000 jobs in the Northwest.
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