Iowa Produce Market Potential Calculator: The economic impacts of increased fruit and vegetable production in Iowa

This calculator was designed by ISU's Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE), with support and guidance from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, to help users determine how Iowa’s markets would expand if consumers ate more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables rather than produce from conventional sources outside the state. The calculator is unique because users can compare easily what Iowans eat (based on national per capita consumption data) to what Iowa farmers produce (based on U.S. Agriculture Census information).

The calculator includes information about 37 fruits and vegetables currently grown in Iowa. Consumption (demand) and supply (production) can be expressed in a number of weight-based units: pounds, bushels, pick-up or semi-truck load, yield per acre and retail value. Information can be calculated for the entire state, an individual county or group of counties.

Audiences for use of the calculator include farmers, groups that support local and regional foods, and state and local food policy councils. The Iowa Produce Market Potential Calculator can be found at: www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/calculator/home.htm

Rich Pirog
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Phone: 515.294.1854
Email: rspirog@iastate.edu

Randy Boeckenstedt
Center for Transportation Research and Education – Iowa State University
Email: rboecken@iastate.edu

The economic impacts of increased fruit and vegetable production in Iowa

What would happen to Iowa’s economy if Iowans raised rather than imported 25 percent of three dozen fruits and vegetables that we normally consume annually? And, what would happen if instead of marketing these fruits and vegetables through existing grocery outlets, Iowa farmers organized to produce direct-sales facilities for their produce? Many things would have to happen for this to occur. The number of farms engaged in fruit and vegetable production would have to increase, as would all of the labor necessary for the production. Land currently producing conventional crops would go down slightly. A new retail industry would emerge, the direct-sales capacity, and some conventional grocery store activity would shrink. When we net out all of these changes, we can get a good idea of the potential worth of this hypothetical scenario for the Iowa economy.

Using data contained in the Iowa Produce Market Potential Calculator, a model developed and deployed by ISU’s CTRE and the Leopold Center, in conjunction with a modified state of Iowa input-output model maintained in the Department of Economics at ISU, the potential economic impacts of these shifts in production and distribution were modeled. If the 25 percent goal were achieved, it was estimated that total new sales in Iowa would increase by nearly $140 million, and $52.4 million in additional labor income would be paid to 2,030 job holders.