Economic Development in Ulster County should focus on important commercial developments, as advocated by John Bonacic and as reported by the Daily Freeman, but recent studies suggest that cultivating the county's natural assets is an even better strategy for attracting wealth. It is well documented that for many hundreds of years wealth was attracted to Ulster County by an appreciation for its incredible natural landscapes, rich soils, and the bounty of its historic working farms and orchards (and now too by our vineyards). Despite this rich heritage our local development experts have rejected agriculture as an economic force. They cite weakening trends in agriculture and the lack of impact on the local work force as reasons not to focus on development in this area. New models indicate that county development dollars spent on agriculture and agri-tourism could annually capture more than one billion dollars in taxable revenues.

Consider this: According to the American Farmland Trust the weakening trend in Total Agricultural Output Value (TAOV) from 1991 to 2000 in Ulster County is now on the upswing. Our TAOV exceeded $51 million in the year 2000 and has been growing. The upswing is due to the strengthening of market share in three areas: orchard/vineyard crops, vegetable production and nursery/greenhouse production. The overall market share in these three agricultural product areas rose from 50% to 85% in the same time period, and projections indicate that with proper development this market share has room for substantial growth.

At the recent Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York Annual Convention, Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center in Iowa shared models that forecast the potential market share of Agriculture. Pirog reports that over the growing season their models indicate that local farms provide residents and visitors with one out of the standard USDA recommended five servings per day of fresh fruits and vegetables. The potential market share for local produce can increase by 500% the closer each resident and/or visitor comes to obtaining the recommended five servings a day from a local farm. This potential market share could result in the capture of five times the TAOV, or $255 million in lost wealth to local Agriculture.

If you compound the potential capture of lost wealth with models for agricultural economic impact and the economic impact estimates for tourism, the potential capture of wealth through Agriculture and Tourism in Ulster County is staggering. The low end of agricultural impact is a factor of 143% on agri-dollars (for every consumer dollar spent on agricultural output, 43 cents trickles into other sectors). Not impressive on it's own, but some estimates place the impact at 255%. What is impressive is that combined with the balance of the tourism and/or second home owner dollar, after the average 12 cents is spent on agricultural-like products, 88 cents is spent on other sectors.

As a farmer participating in local markets it has been my experience that about 40% of the income produced on local farms comes from tourists and/or second-home owners. Carrying forward at a 40% market share, capturing $255 million in agricultural output has the effect of generating over $1 billion in total agri-tourism revenues.

Models in the United Kingdom and by the USDA also empirically demonstrate that buying produce locally creates wealth by saving the miles a product travels when shipped nationally or internationally. The estimated fuel consumption just within the US for nationally shipping five servings/day to our county is approximately 368,000 gallons of fuel as compared with 44,000 to 88,000 gallons of fuel for shipping regionally or locally. These miles have a further cost in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Rondout Valley Growers Association (RVGA), the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, The Ulster County Farm Bureau, and the newly formed Hudson Valley Agri-Business Development Corporation, and members of our County Legislature, like Democrat Hector Rodriquez and Republican Wayne Harris, have been attempting to help pool modest resources to make Agricultural Economic Development in Ulster County a reality. It is time that the Ulster County Development Corporation and the entire Ulster County Legislature join these efforts, and focus adequate resources in this area. It is senseless to focus efforts on large-scale development and not on developing County assets posed for exponential economic growth. Ultimately economic development is about the health and wealth of the county's bounty.

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