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Farm belt has fresh produce

June 10th, 2007 · 2 Comments · local food

I was intrigued by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl’s remark in Gourmet’s ChopTalk that, “The irony of eating in the farm belt is that the farther you get into the agricultural areas, the harder it is to eat locally.”

The comment had the ring of truth to it as I visualized the vast miles of cropland across the Midwest dedicated to today’s “monoculture” farming: Corn in Illinois, wheat in Kansas, soy in Iowa. But was her comment true?

Pole Beans

I decided to take a look. Here is what I got after romping through the vast miles of data available on the Internet. (I’ll give a little more info on my method at the end of this post, but I don’t want to bog down here.)

farm belt rank state # mkts population (millions) people per mkt

  1. Minnesota ……… 91 ……5.17 ………… 56,813
  2. Iowa ……………. 137 …… 2.98 ……….. 21,751
  3. Nebraska ……… 46……. 1.77…………. 38,478
  4. Kansas …………. 79 …… 2.76 ………… 34,937
  5. South Dakota ..12…… 0.78 ………….. 65,000
  6. Missouri………. 97 ……5.84 ………….. 60,206

California ………… 500 ……36.46………… 72,920

In short, if you start looking at the big picture-local food outlets as a function of population-maybe there are more local food in the farm belt than it appears. (Note to self: Avoid using tables on blog.) Naturally, the growing season is significantly shorter in the northern climes than in California, and I would imagine that the heavily populated areas of California have markets that operate many days a week. But still, the farm belt leaders stack up fairly well next to California. Also, the California supermarkets have local produce, too, if you count the produce of the giant commercial growers, and in fairness I probably should to address Grumdahl’s issue.

Still, I think it’s one of those things where the scattered population of the Plains means services like farmers markets are spread out, too. I might add that it’s a rare farm in my experience that doesn’t have it’s own little vegetable garden to supply the family with food to spare.
Of course, there are a million ways you can approach this question. Here’s how I did it:

Using data from the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract, I came up with my list of the top six farm belt states. My list consists of states that appear most often on lists of top 10 producers of corn, wheat, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy cows. I didn’t think total agriculture product in dollars would be as reflective of farming, since it would give too much weight to beef. Only three farm belt-ish states (Michigan, Idaho and Texas) are in the top 10 list for vegetables, by the way.

Then, I looked to see how many farmers markets were available in those states according to Localharvest.com, and got the population data from the Census Bureau’s Quick Facts pages. Thus armed, I figured population served per market and compared the farm belt states with California, the vegetable paradise. (I used a general figure of 500 for California farmer’s market from California Federation of Certified Farmers’ Markets, because the Localharvest.com figure was ridiculously low and, admittedly, makes their numbers a little suspect overall.)

It was an interesting exercise, although more time-consuming than I’d planned. I found some other interesting data, too, such as New Mexico ranking seventh in milk cows. That makes no sense whatsoever. But that’s for another day.

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2 Comments so far ↓

  • Joanne

    Good points, Janet! I’ve noticed a general trend-there is more locally available food, marketed in clear and easy to find ways, in areas where people are better educated about it. Therefore, the east and west coasts look like they have tons of farmer’s markets, local foods grown sustainably, etc. However, if you work hard, you can find local and organic foods in many places. I buy local free range chicken and beef and even lamb sometimes. I get an organic veggie share from a relatively local farmer. However, I have to work really hard to find organic fruits, or even just to buy every kind of fresh fruit or veggie that I’d like to have. It’s just not available in my area of KY, and it’s only slightly more available 70 miles away in Nashville. I think it has to do with consumer and farmer education first. Then, how many home gardens are there? (those consumers don’t need the markets as much) Finally, here in the middle of the country, it takes time for food trends to catch on. KY has a lot of cattle farming, soybeans, corn-but organic agriculture is really behind, so it’s hard to find locally grown produce that is safer to eat. Just my thoughts. I think about this a lot.

  • Janet Majure

    I can see you’ve thought about it, Joanne. My sense of things, as alluded to in this post, and a little in this more recent post about food marketing, is that grocers and farmers are willing to stock things IF they know people will buy them.

    I guess that means consumers have to be more assertive about letting grocers know that they want good food. The average supermarket isn’t exactly set up to solicit opinions except at the cash register, though.

    I wouldn’t think Kansas would be that far ahead of Kentucky (we’re much closer to the middle than you are!), but, then, maybe my view is becoming infected with the widespread opinion that all Kansans must be cretins based on one piece of the politics here. Anyway, keep at it. I’m sure you’ll succeed.

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