Identifying Spatial Clusters within U.S. Organic Agriculture

The market for organically produced products has experienced rapid growth in recent decades; however, this growth has not been distributed evenly across the country instead concentrating in certain regions. Employing measures of spatial concentration and association we identify those counties in which organic production is clustered or represents a proportion of the agricultural economy greater than what would be expected by national trends. Results show that spatial clustering of organic agriculture does exist based on data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture on organic farms, acreage, and value of sales. Counties with the largest location quotients for organic production were most often located in the western U.S., especially California, Washington, and Oregon, the Great Plains states, New England, and in some cases, select counties within Mid-Atlantic States. Organic production clusters as measured by the local Moran’s I statistic followed a similar pattern, clustering primarily in the western U.S. with additional High/high clusters found in the Great Plains, upper Midwest, and areas of New England. When these values were adjusted to represent organic agriculture’s share of a county’s total agriculture, central cluster counties were most likely to be found in New England. Results describing the correlation between organic support establishments and production within identified clusters suggest that organic operations in California and New England may be following different marketing strategies that promote or reduce the likelihood of identifying input-output relationships within these clusters

The Flow of South Carolina Harvested Seafood Products through South Carolina Markets

Marketing,

Greater Greenville Regional Economic Scorecard, 2010

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

The Contribution of the Textile and Apparel Cluster to the South Carolina Economy

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Economic and Fiscal Impacts of the Cliffs Communities on the Upstate Region of the Carolinas

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

South Carolina's Textile and Apparel Industries: An Analysis of Trends in Traditional and Emerging Sectors

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

An Agent Allocation System for the West Virginia University Extension Service

Extension recognizes the importance of data in guiding programing decisions at the local level. However, allocating personnel resources and specializations at the state level is a more complex process. The West Virginia University Extension Service has adopted a data-driven process to determine the number, location, and specializations of county agents across the state. While local desires will always be part of the process, new metrics and methods encourage discussion and guide those decisions. The expected result is an improved matching of agents with local needs, thus improving the ability of Extension to fulfill its service mission statewide

West Virginia Farmers Market Training Network: A Case Study in Connecting Markets and Resources

Farmers markets provide social and economic benefits to farmers and communities. In West Virginia, local food, farm, and community development organizations are collaborating to strengthen local food networks. In this reflective essay we discuss the development and execution of a statewide pilot training program for market managers and volunteer leaders and provide results from first year evaluations. Launched in 2012, the West Virginia Farmers Market Training Network Pilot Program (FMTNPP) was designed to address the needs of 10 markets in various stages of development across the state. Originally envisioned as a direct technical assistance model, the program organizers rapidly recognized the benefits of peer-to-peer learning and shifted its focus to a hybrid model that embraced both expert and practitioner knowledge. Today, the program emphasizes shared knowledge creation and problem solving, along with strong networking and data collection components. We believe the lessons and strategies learned during the program\u27s implementation will be valuable for food system organizers and service providers trying to encourage the growth and sustainability of small, rural farmers markets

Greater Greenville Regional Economic Scorecard March 2008

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Greater Greenville Regional Economic Scorecard, 2009

Community/Rural/Urban Development,