Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
be routinized to the point that workers within occupational categories become “interchange-
able.”
Beyond the farm gate, the processing sector of the food industry has also been shaped by
neoclassical precepts. To capture the benefits associated with economies of scale, many small
food processors have been forced to expand, merge with larger operations, or go out of busi-
ness. During the latter half of the twentieth century, large, multinational food processors be-
came dominant in the food sector of the American economy as they gained control over large
segments of the food system. Today, the ten largest multinational corporations account for
over 60 percent of the retail purchases of food in the United States. 4 Mass-production man-
ufacturers and mass-market retailers provide abundant quantities of relatively inexpensive,
standardized products. While these giant food corporations are still forming, their growth and
development has shaped local agriculture and food systems in every region of the country.
Today, no region of the United States can be said to be even substantially self-sufficient
in food production. Consumers depend heavily on imported products that can be produced
only in climates and soils outside their regions. In many areas of the country, there is little or
no locally produced food in commercial channels. The peri-urban areas around many large
American cities have the soils and climate needed to produce a broad array of food products.
Historically, these areas were sources of fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy and meat products.
Fruit and vegetables from nearby “truck farms” were a regular staple during the summer and
fall in many urban food economies. The industrialization of agriculture coupled with a policy
of cheap energy, however, made it possible to move food great distances at little cost. At
the same time, places that have little or no local resources to produce food have burst forth
as America's fastest-growing cities. These cities are tethered to food pipelines that extend
around the globe. 5
The relationships between large-scale, regionally concentrated agricultural producers, na-
tional and multinational food processors and distributors, and the structure of local food sys-
tems are complex, geographically dispersed, and heavily influenced by policy. For example,
as the agricultural landscape of California changed in the early part of the twentieth century
to accommodate large-scale, corporately controlled fruit and vegetable farms, the number of
fruit and vegetable farms in the Northeast declined. Between 1910 and 1950 the value of
small fruits and berries and tree fruits increased from $20.1 million to $106 million in Cali-
fornia, a 421 percent increase, while in New York the value of small fruits and berries and
tree fruits increased only 25 percent from $20.9 million in 1910 to only $26.2 million in
1950. At the same time, the food system in the Northeast was transformed from a more loc-
ally interdependent system of production and consumption to a more globally oriented sys-
tem where production was uncoupled from consumption. These changes have impacts that
go far beyond the agricultural sector. The character and structure of communities are dramat-
ically altered by these trends.
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