(Image Source: Gemma / Unsplash)
February 2023
Wisconsin farmers, grocers, and families will be watching Congress closely this year the Farm Bill is due for renewal in 2023. The Farm Bill is an omnibus piece of legislation that sets nationwide policy pertaining to both mandatory and discretionary spending on agricultural and food programs. Today’s Econ Quiz revisits and updates a 2019 quiz on one program within the Farm Bill.
In 2019, the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) released a report which found that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) redemptions had a positive impact on local employment as well as access to food. In nonmetro counties between 2001 and 2014, each additional $10,000 of SNAP redemptions resulted in an increase of 0.4 additional local jobs, or 1.0 jobs for every $25,000 redeemed.
The effect is fairly logical: SNAP increases the dollars spent on food in local communities, and a local increase in spending on food leads to a local increase in food-related jobs and economic activity. In high poverty areas, where annual SNAP redemption per capita can be around $500 annually, the economic stimulus effect of SNAP may be greater than the effects of economic development grants or loans. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 703,488 residents in our state were enrolled SNAP benefits in the first 11 months of 2022, receiving an average of $249 per month per recipient.
In addition to providing crucial access to food for these residents, how many jobs in Wisconsin could be attributed to SNAP redemptions in 2022?
A. 37,291
B. 15,642
C. 84,163
D. 72,445
E. 42,384
ANSWERS
Answer C. Based on the first 11 months of 2022, Wisconsin received about $2.1 billion in SNAP benefits in the last calendar year. At a rate of 1 job per $25,000 in SNAP redemptions, a back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that about 84,163 Wisconsin jobs could be attributed to SNAP redemptions in 2022.
