Food economies

Located here is an article entitled “Forecasting Consumer Price Indexes for Food: A Demand Model Approach,” by Kuo S. Huang. Huang uses an inverse demand function to assess the change in quantity demanded for a variety of goods (including beef, eggs, fruits, vegetables, cereal…) based on a one percent change in price of that good. Huang presents a chart that shows, for example, that a one percent increase in the price of poultry would result in a .84 percent decrease in the quantity demanded of poultry. He also gives figures for cross elasticity of demand: A one percent increase in the price of red meat, for example, .91 percent decrease in the quantity demanded of beef.

There are nine Iowa counties of interest in this project. These include the four counties surrounding the town of Grinnell (Marshall, Tama, Jasper, and Poweshiek), and the five in the vicinity of Fairfield (Wapello, Jefferson, Davis, Van Buren, and Henry).

A map of the state of Iowa with the two regions outlined is shown in the attached file entitled “Outline of Two Regions.”

Grinnell Region
Total Farmers’ Markets: 7
Total Number of Residents: 113,442
Number of Farmers’ Markets per 100,000 Residents: 6.17

Marshall County:

• Population: 39,311

Check out http://www.foodroutes.org/

Find out where your food comes from, how you can buy local, why you should buy local, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), "Buy Fresh, Buy Local," and much more.