Partnering Organization: Hopsteiner

Project Goals

• Understand how changes in Washington State's overtime laws for agricultural workers will this effect hop growers in the coming years.
• What can be done at the grower level to mitigate the impact of these new laws?  
  

Among many different types of research resources, this project is going to require finding data pertaining to the hop industry, the impact caused by changes in the overtime laws, as well as scholarly research. 

Listed below are resources that might assist you with this project. It is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list. Rather it is meant to get you thinking about what sort of resources you might need and where they may come from.

If you have any question, please email me.

Part of this project requires an understanding of the hop industry. This information may include company or industry profiles, newspaper reports, press releases, and more.

Below are a few resources to get you started. 

Tip: Think about the keywords that you will be using for your searches. A term like "hops" might get you too many erroneous search results. Therefore you may need to refine your keywords to "hop industry" or "hop growing."

Helpful Industry Resources

• Nexis Uni - Provides information on U.S. and international private and public companies. Info may include: Company description and history, competitors, subsidiaries, size, officers and directors, annual stock price averages, and more.
• Business Source Complete - Allows you to search company and industry information across popular press, trade journals, product reviews, and much more. Also provides information regarding company and industry profiles. This may be helpful when for searching for information regarding companies within the hop industry. 

For more in-depth information regarding corporate research, take a look at the Company Research Library Guide. 

Newspaper and Trade Publications

• Newspaper Source - This database provides selected full text coverage for 245 newspapers, newswires and other sources.
• Nexis Uni - An excellent source for searching for information within state/regional/US newspapers (including the New York Times) as well as English-language foreign newspapers and foreign language newspapers. 

See also WSU News and Newspaper Research Guide. 

Find Data Regarding Hop Markets, Yields, etc.

• USDA acreage/yield charts and data resources
• USDA report "Hops: Production & Average Price by Year." 
• USDA Washington Field Office - National Agricultural Statistics Service. This resource provides regional information regarding the hop industry. 
• USDA Northwest 2021 Hop Production Report (PDF)

Resources for Understanding Changes to the Washington Overtime Laws and their Effects on Hop Growers 

• The Washington State Department of Labor and Industry guide to the changing overtime laws.
• USDA's guide to overtime and other related laws.
• It may be worth looking at the Hop Grower's of America (trade organization) resources.

You will probably also have to locate scholarly and peer-reviewed research. Below are a few scholarly databases that will be particularly helpful.

• Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)

  Includes Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Citation indexes, Journal Citation Reports, BIOSIS Previews, BIOSIS Citation Index, Derwent Innovations patent searching, MEDLINE, and Zoological Record. Updated weekly.

• Washington State University Library Catalog (Search It)

  Search It is the WSU library catalog. You can search among many different types of resources and order materials from other institutions if they are not immediately available through WSU. You will find the most resources in Search It but you will also find the most noise.

• AGRICOLA (EBSCO)

  AGRICOLA contains bibliographic records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.