Melissa Knox Finds Positive Impacts of the Seattle Food Access Programs on Farmers and the Farm Economy
Posted: 5/21/2019 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Melissa Knox, Lecturer in Economics, recently co-authored a report for the City of Seattle on the impact of City funded food access programs on farmers and the Washington farm economy. Authors presented the results to the King County Agricultural Commission and plan to report them to other City policymakers in coming months. CSDE supported the project by providing administrative oversight through its P2C research infrastructure grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Seattle’s Food Access Programming increases access to healthy and affordable food, improving consumer welfare as well as benefiting local farmers who grow the food sold and those who do business with participating farmers. The report finds a net positive range of economic activity in the State of Washington and in King County as a result of City spending on food access programs. Knox additionally finds that farmers felt positively about these programs, and reported many benefits of participation, as well as opportunities for program improvement.