Economic and Social Impacts of a Large Agricultural Processing Plant in a Rural County

In 1994, a large pork processing plant located in Texas County, Oklahoma. In addition, many ranchers built large pork confinement facilities. The county was sparsely populated with 16,320 residents. The largest community, Guymon, had a population of 8,350 residents. These activities have changed the community and the objective of this paper will be to (1) review the social and economic changes that have occurred since 1994, and (2) to project social and economic changes from 1998 to 2003. Many growth pains have occurred since 1994 and a discussion of social and economic data will clearly exemplify positive and negative changes. Economic data, which includes employment and income data and demographic data, will demonstrate the growth in the economy. Social data, such as crime date, child abuse, and school enrollment, will demonstrate how selected community services have been impacted. A simulation model employing input-output is used to project changes to 2003. The model projects demographic and economic data. Then, based on these data, infrastructure and community service estimates are made. Example estimates include such items as housing, school enrollment, water needs and physician needs. In summary, the paper will discuss how the county has changed since 1994 and project how it will change from 1998 to 2003. The simulation results will be used by local decision makers as they plan on how they will provide community services and plan infrastructure needs.