Impact of Organic Food Agritourism on a Small Rural Economy: A Social Accounting Matrix Approach

Abstract

The U.S. organic food market recently experienced a rapid expansion, and yet this industry's potential to promote economic development remains largely unexplored. This paper proposes the introduction of organic-food agritourism as a sustainable development strategy for a distressed rural community. In contrast to conventional impact studies that emphasize final demand shocks, this study examines the impact of higher regional purchase coefficients (RPCs) based on the hypothesis that agritourism promotion will attract nature-oriented tourists inclined to spend more on organic produce. Using a social accounting matrix (SAM) model, we found that a successful campaign to promote organic agriculture not only delivers higher production output, but also generates a more egalitarian distribution of income.