This week, colleagues Ashley Thompson (OSU-MCAREC), Mike McCullough (Cal Poly Agribusiness), and I published an article through OSU Extension on the regulatory costs faced by Oregon tree fruit growers. In this project1, we carried out in-depth interviews with pear and cherry producers about the expenses that they incur to comply with state and federal regulations.
With work like this there is an understandable tendency to focus on the numbers – we estimate that the growers we interviewed spend between $250 and $700 per acre on regulatory compliance each year – but the value of this work is more than just a tabulation of costs. These expenses, such as the time that it takes to maintain records for food safety compliance or to participate in employee safety trainings, rarely make it into widely used enterprise budgets that estimate the profitability of crop and livestock production. Farmers themselves don’t typically have records of their regulatory costs because these expenses get classified as labor, or overhead; or, if the farm owner is doing the work, don’t get recorded at all.
The result is that neither the policy makers (who are working to maximize the public good by protecting the environment, workers, and the public) nor farmers are sure if they are making efficient decisions. My hope is that this article and our outreach efforts help farmers manage regulatory requirements in a cost-effective way that supports their long-term financial sustainability. I also hope that this report provides policy makers with a clearer picture of the costs incurred by Oregon’s agricultural sector to remain in compliance with existing regulation.
There is much more in the full article, so I encourage you to take a look. As always, feel free to reach out with questions or for more discussion.
tim.delbridge@oregonstate.edu
- Funding was provided for this project by the Oregon Department of Agriculture through the Specialty Crop Block Grant. ↩︎