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<br />
<br />farm and food system accounts for
<br />57.5 percent of labor and proprietor
<br />income in the farm dependent
<br />counties.
<br />In the farm important counties,
<br />the farm and food system in 1987
<br />accounted for $236,8 million in labor
<br />and proprietor income out of a total
<br />income of $802.4 million, This is
<br />nearly 30 percent of the total income
<br />in these counties, For the individual
<br />sectors, the farm input sector contrib-
<br />uted $30,7 million (3,8 percent); the
<br />farm production sector contributed
<br />$110.5 million (J3,8 percent); the
<br />processing sector contributed $37.5
<br />million (4,7 percent); and the food
<br />wholesaling and retailing sector
<br />added another $58.1 million (7,2
<br />percent), The total agribusiness
<br />income in the farm important counties
<br />was $178,7 million, or 22,3 percent of
<br />the total income,
<br />In the remaining 26 nonmetropo-
<br />litan counties, the farm and food
<br />system is relatively smaller, but is
<br />nonetheless an important contributor
<br />to economic activity, The entire
<br />system provided $644.3 million in
<br />income or 14,2 percent of the total
<br />income in this group of counties.
<br />Agribusiness alone accounted for 7,84
<br />percent of the $45 billion income in
<br />these counties, In the metropolitan
<br />areas, the farm and food system
<br />contributed labor and proprietor
<br />income of $2.44 billion or 7,54
<br />percent of the total $32.4 billion,
<br />Agribusiness accounted for 2,61
<br />percent or $845,7 million, Figure 4
<br />provides a graphic representation of
<br />these percentages,
<br />
<br />7
<br />
<br />Figure 4: Importance of farm andfood system. Income and earnings,
<br />Colorado,1987.
<br />
<br /> 70%
<br /> 80%
<br /> 50%
<br />,I
<br />..
<br />o!I 40%
<br />~
<br />...
<br />- 30%
<br />D
<br />1!l
<br />B
<br />~ 20%
<br /> 10%
<br />
<br />
<br />0%
<br />
<br />FIrm ImporlBnt
<br />County Group
<br />~ Farm Ine ~ Agrl1lun ~ F+ F Sya
<br />
<br />Employment in Farm Dependent
<br />and Farm Important Counties
<br />
<br />While income is an important
<br />indicator of the relative economic
<br />contributions of particular sectors to a
<br />state or local economy, income
<br />measures may understate the role of
<br />certain sectors with traditionally low
<br />incomes or where incomes are
<br />temporarily depressed, This was
<br />especially true for agriculture during
<br />the "farm crisis" of 1980-84, In such
<br />cases, employment may provide a
<br />truer picture of the actual importance
<br />of the sector, or at least a convenient
<br />check on the conclusions drawn from
<br />income estimates.
<br />Data on the contribution of
<br />agriculture to employment in the state
<br />in 1987 is presented in Appendix
<br />TableA-L These data show that the
<br />farm input sector employed 11
<br />thousand workers, the farm produc-
<br />tion sector employed 42.4 thousand,
<br />the processing sector employed 25.5
<br />thousand, and the food wholesaling
<br />and retailing sector 152,7 thousand,
<br />
<br />The 79 thousand workers employed
<br />in the agribusiness sector made up
<br />6,52 percent of total employment in
<br />the state while the employment of 232
<br />thousand in the farm and food system
<br />made up over 19 percent of total
<br />employment in the state's economy,
<br />The importance of agricultural
<br />employment varies significantly with
<br />the degree to which the economies of
<br />local communities are dependent on
<br />farming, Figure 5 shows that farm and
<br />ranch employment is dominant in the
<br />17 farm dependent counties, account-
<br />ing for 47.3 percent of total employ-
<br />ment The agribusiness sector em-
<br />ployed about 53.5 percent of the total
<br />and the total farm and food system
<br />accounted for nearly 64 percent of the
<br />total employment in the farm depend-
<br />ent counties, In the farm important
<br />counties, agribusiness provided 303
<br />percent of the employment and the
<br />total farm and food system provided
<br />45,9 percent of total employment
<br />In the remaining counties in the
<br />state, the farm and food system
<br />
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