Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401070144
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER[
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Counting both direct production of crops and livestock and the indirect impact of farmers' spending on consumer goods, agriculture accounts for $17.2 billion a year.
The agricultural sector provides jobs for 415,000 Virginians, the researchers found.
The study was conducted for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services by Tom Johnson, an agricultural economist at Virginia Tech, and Ernest Wade, his research associate.
Johnson said the study is the most comprehensive ever done on the impact of the agricultural sector on the Virginia economy. "We really tore into the data," he said.
About two years ago, people with agricultural organizations, such as the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, Southern States Cooperative and Virginia Agribusiness Council, started talking about the need for such a study, Johnson said.
Clinton Turner, Virginia agriculture commissioner, became an advocate for the research, seeing its potential to identify ways the state could help agricultural businesses grow.
One surprising finding of the study was that agriculture is more important to Virginia's urban areas than many in the field originally expected, said Herb Hill, director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Agricultural Development for the state.
Agriculture is often perceived as a rural activity and not as the big business that it really is, he said.
The farm economy doesn't stop at the farm gate, said Carlton Courter III, executive director of the Agribusiness Council. "It's not just corn and cows . . . it's the whole gamut."
Courter said he feared agriculture was often not given credit for its contribution. He hopes for both a comprehensive and definitive study, Courter said. "If we're big, fine; if we're not big, so be it."
The results of the study might be useful in making arguments during the development of the state budget, but they're more important in guiding the industry's development over the long run, Courter said.
According to Johnson and Wade, Virginia agriculture is based on 44,000 farms and 8.2 million acres of crops and pastures, but farming is only a small and critical link in the middle of a chain of much larger economic activity.
Less than 2 percent of the state's labor force is directly employed in farming, but the entire agricultural sector employs nearly 9 percent of all working Virginians.
The job breakdown for the state's agricultural economy includes 49,000 employed on farms; 51,000 in the processing of agricultural products; 64,000 in distribution of goods; and 83,000 at companies that supply farmers, processors and distributors with machinery and materials.
Another 7 percent of working Virginians - 164,000 people - owe their jobs to the money spent by wage earners in the agricultural sector, the researchers concluded.
For the purposes of their study, the researchers defined the state's agricultural system as including:
All crop and livestock farming, including Christmas trees, vineyards, orchards and farm services.
Food and tobacco processing, wineries and cotton textiles.
Transportation, wholesaling and retailing of agricultural products.
Producers of material and machinery used by farms, and processors and distributors of farm products.
The timber industry and forest products, which have been considered part of the agricultural sector in the past, were not included as part of the study.
In 1992, sales within the agricultural sector exceeded $25 billion, but only $2.9 billion of that went directly to farmers. Food manufacturers and tobacco processors had sales of $14.3 billion; distributors, $2.2 billion; and in-state suppliers to other segments of the agricultural economy, $4.9 billion.
The wages and other income earned by employees and proprietors in the agricultural sector generated another $9.3 billion in sales within the state, the researchers found.
by CNB