Office of Economic Development, and the Urban Affairs and Planning Program, release findings of a year-long study of farmshoring in Virginia
Virginia Tech's Office of Economic Development and the Urban Affairs and Planning Program in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies have released the findings of a year-long study: Farmshoring in Virginia: Domestic Outsourcing Strategies for Linking Urban and Rural Economies in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Economic Development Studio @ Virginia Tech conducted the study on behalf of state, regional, and local economic development agencies around the Commonwealth. Farmshoring in Virginia documents the opportunities and barriers related to the farmshoring phenomenon--the outsourcing of jobs or contracts to areas of the country with a lower cost of doing business.
The related topic of offshoring--the relocation of jobs overseas--deeply affects American communities. For some time, firms have relocated manufacturing activities and services to far-flung places like India or China. Jobs in established industries are lost, and affected regions, often rural in character, struggle to restructure their economies. Other regions, frequently more urban, see concentrations of jobs develop that far outstrip their available labor supply.
Farmshoring in Virginia finds firms not just looking overseas, but to low-cost communities in rural areas in the United States. Opportunities in domestic outsourcing or farmshoring are driven by needs like lower costs, data security, skilled and stable labor forces, and geographic constraints. Firms are building the business case for “going to the farm,” moving different types of work to diverse rural areas. As a result, rural communities will benefit from job creation and new investment. At the same time, jurisdictions currently hosting businesses interested in outsourcing can find a silver lining in farmshoring. Efficiencies gained through farmshoring within the same state strengthen firm ties to both locations. The study finds a win-win situation in farmshoring for communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. One example is the recent decision by two firms to locate 750 high-paying information and communications technology jobs in Lebanon, a town deep in rural Southwest Virginia.
Heike Mayer, assistant professor of urban and regional planning, and John Provo, senior economic development specialist with the Office of Economic Development, along with a class of graduate students in urban and regional planning, worked throughout the project with a consortium of state, regional, and local partners. The project provided a new model for university outreach and learning because it successfully engaged Virginia Tech faculty and students at both the Blacksburg campus and National Capital Region campus in work with communities on a statewide project.
Among the community and agency partners participating in the Economic Development Studio@Virginia Tech project are the Virginia Economic Development Partnership; the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation; the cities of Alexandria, Galax and Harrisonburg; and Arlington, Carroll, Loudoun, and Smyth counties.
