When it comes to food consumption in America, most states tend to eat more than they produce. There are however a few heroic states that help to make up the difference. Which states are making up for the food storage in these instances?
To try and find the answer, Pots Planters & More analyzed several trends in the American food economy. They wanted to shed some light on the amount of food that is consumed in this country vs the amount of food produced. The produced several maps that break down America’s current relationship with food consumption.
The first map analyzes American food consumption vs production. The calculated each American states ratio of pounds of food consumed to the dollar value of food produced including all edible crops and animal products. They found that only 12 out of 50 states produce more food than they consume (Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). Every other state consumes quite a bit more than they produce with states like Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey being major outliers on the other side.
The second map analyzed what portion of food produced in each state is exported to other countries. They found that California, Illinois, Arkansas and Louisiana ship more than a third of all the food they product to other countries. Most states only ship between 10-20% of their food production to other countries. They also found that as a country we import close to 15 percent of the entire amount of food we produce.
The last map in their analysis looked at the top edible product produced in each state, based on gross monetary value. The analysis shows that 37 out of the 50 states count meat, poultry, fish and dairy as the product that nets them the most overall value. This is not to be confused with the top crop in each state. They produced a table that shows an analysis of both. The map also shows that the top edible product produced in each state tends to be similar based on the geographical location of the country. Beef and milk dominate the western part of the country, with corn and milk dominating the Midwest, with poultry and eggs dominating the southeast part of the country.
The full analysis can be seen in the maps below.
