The Regional Economic Development Potential and Constraints to Local Foods Development in the Midwest

This paper looks at practical limits to local foods production and consumption in the Upper Midwest.� It presumes that local foods production makes the most sense, and has the greatest profit potential, in relatively close proximity to dense urban demand.� The research demonstrates methods for determining county-level fresh fruit and vegetable production potentials for the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indian, and Iowa in light of the distribution of metropolitan areas with 250,000 residents or more within or nearby the region.� It also estimates the farm production-related total economic values that would accumulate were local foods production goals achieved in the region using input-output modeling tools.�� A state-only analysis was also conducted for Iowa using smaller metropolitan areas and a shorter viable distance-to-market threshold to apply the larger study’s insights in a manner that might guide state-level decision making.� The research can be useful for helping to inform state policy developments as well as the location and extent of Cooperative Extension and other types of state and local services and production assistance designed to bolster or further investigate this emerging rural development topic.local foods; impact analysis

Estimating the Importance of the Ethanol Industry to the Iowa Economy in 2011

At ISU we produce estimates of the total value of certain industries to the state’s economy using modeling systems that contain up-to-date secondary data on the major components of industrial production in the state.� We, for example, periodically describe the importance of agriculture and ag-related manufacturing to jobs and incomes in Iowa for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as it promotes its education and outreach services to its many and diverse stakeholders.� Similar studies have been done for manufacturing clusters, like the Cedar Rapids area food and kindred products manufacturing sector, or whole industries, like the state’s vaunted insurance sector.This report summarizes the ethanol industry’s value to the state of Iowa using the same methods ISU employs with other industries it periodically evaluates as well as the same methods it has deployed in previous studies of Iowa’s ethanol sector.corn ethanol; economic impacts

Manufacturing Trends in the U.S.,

A comparative assessment of major trends and shifts in manufacturing employment in the U.S. and in Iowa in recent years. In addition, comparisons are made of Iowa's manufacturing job performance in relation to the average for all states that border Iowa.

Measuring the Economic Impacts of Buy Local Campaigns in Iowa

In Iowa, both in urban areas and more rural territories, there is a general awareness of sales leakages. These leakages take the forms of out-of-region intermediate input purchases, overall household and institutional imports, and the normal regional competitive losses in small communities to neighboring trade centers. As an economic development service extension, we have developed a useful prototype for measuring regional import substitute opportunities and identifying the potential regional gains from such a campaign. This paper will describe the basics of the approach using IMPLAN along with an example of a recent buy local report.

Estimating the Production and Market Value-Based Impacts of Nutritional Goals in Ne Iowa

This research describes the potential economic impacts of a nutritionist-suggested level of fresh fruits and vegetable consumption coupled with increased levels of local production of these commodities and builds off of earlier work done by the author. It combines the net economic impacts of shifting from traditional commodity crops (corn and soybeans in Iowa) to horticulture crops with an imagined producer-owned wholesale and retail distribution network to gauge overall job and income gains for Iowa or for regions in Iowa. We also assess animal, poultry, and whole grain components of the hypothetical diet. The potential economic outcomes are identified and quantified in this study. The methodology and applicability to other regions and other local production and distribution contexts are discussed as well.

Estimating the Future Economic Impact of Corn Ethanol Production in the U.S.

This brief exercise assesses the potential economic impact value of ethanol production comparing current, 2007, estimates with a future level of production for 2016 and a long run equilibrium level (LRE) for 2025. The values for this estimate are driven by current Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) forecasts of corn and ethanol production. All of the estimates assume corn ethanol production only. No other kind of ethanol production is measured nor should be implied. By 2016, nearly 9,000 U.S. jobs will be directly linked to ethanol production, supporting in total nearly 47,200 jobs in the whole economy, given the assumptions in the analysis.

Tax Increment Financing in Iowa: Background, Research, and Recommendations

This paper is a summary of the origins of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and reforms to TIF based on economic and intergovernmental fiscal shifts during the 1980s. �Iowa's modern TIF law is, as a result, very widely and indescriminantly used, leading to a call for reform of the core legislative authority. �This paper is covers the testimony of David Swenson before the Iowa House Ways and Means subcommittee in February, 2012.

Measuring University Contributions to Regional Economies: A Discussion of Guidelines for Enhancing Credibility

In light of tight state fiscal accounts, increased competition among all government service providers for scarce resources, and a poorly performing national economy, public universities are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their worth to regional or statewide economies.� This has resulted in a proliferation of university economic impact studies.This paper is a guide to assist public university economic impact practitioners plan, structure, evaluate, and disseminate higher education economic information that can be used for policy development, general planning, and overall university relations.� It provides some basic considerations, cautions, and checks that university economic impact studies should keep in mind when engaging in this activity.�university; university economic impact; guidelines

Buying Local in Marshall County and Marshalltown, Iowa: An Economic Impact Assessment

Many communities are trying to shore up their local economies. One strategy is to work with local industries and with households to increase the amount of purchases that they make from local suppliers of goods and services. This import substitution strategy can yield measurable and significant impacts. This case study looks at Marshalltown, Iowa, and investigates the regional economic gains from a 5% increase in local purchases.

Measuring the Total Economic Value of State-Funded Higher Education in Iowa

This is an evaluation of the statewide total economic value of state-funded higher education in Iowa.� The analysis is based on Fiscal Year 2010 final budgeted values for Iowa’s three Board of Regents universities and their teaching hospital, as well as the state’s 15 community colleges.� Final budget year data were obtained from the respective state universities’ web sites, from the Board of Regents, and from the Annual Condition of Iowa’s Community Colleges, 2010, report published by the Iowa Department of Education.� Additional information on employment was obtained from the Iowa Board of Regents using October 2009 employment levels as the official employment basis for FY ‘10. The evaluation has three distinct components.� It first looks at all Board of Regent’s higher education spending, which includes all university institutes, centers, extension activities, and other services.� The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) are separately evaluated.� While it is a teaching hospital, and an important educational institution to the state of Iowa, it is most properly measured primarily as a public hospital for the purposes of this study, not as an educational facility.� Last, Iowa’s 15 community colleges are evaluated as a combined, albeit distributed group of higher education providers.economic impact; input output analysis; university