Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sales, are located in California. The largest of these counties, Fresno County, had over $2.7
billion in sales in 1997. There are twenty-two states in which gross agricultural sales are less
than Fresno's $2.7 billion.
Distancing: Separating Production and Consumption
Brewster Kneen, a Canadian agricultural economist, uses the term “distancing” to indicate
the process that separates people from the sources of their food and replaces diversified
and sustainable food systems with a globalized, commodified system. According to Kneen,
“Distancing most obviously means increasing the physical distance between the point at
which food is actually grown or raised and the point at which it is consumed, as well as the
extent to which the finished product is removed from its raw state by processing.” 7 The pro-
cesses of agricultural consolidation and concentration have resulted in a production system
that is more often than not separated from where consumption occurs. Modern agricultural
and food technologies have contributed to the distancing of food production from consump-
tion in many ways. Plant breeders and other agricultural scientists have engineered stability
and durability into commodities. Food processors take basic commodities and manufacture
them into products that have very long shelf lives. And food scientists have developed pre-
servation techniques to increase the time between when food is harvested or slaughtered and
when it is consumed. 8
Most states both import and export agricultural products. Complete agricultural or food
self-sufficiency at the state level is probably not desirable, though a provocative paper by
Michael Hamm, a nutritionist at Michigan State University, assesses the potential for a loc-
alized food supply in New Jersey. As Hamm notes, “If sustainable in the long term implies
greater local food production within an ecosystem/community context then we need to see if
the potential exists within some area to produce adequate supplies of food.” 9 Although New
Jersey is the most densely population state in the nation, he points out that there are still ap-
proximately 600,000 acres of cropland and 160,000 acres of pasture in the state. Drawing on
a broad range of data sources and using a nutritional analysis framework, Hamm concludes
that if certain conditions are met, the potential exists for producing all the food needed for
the population of New Jersey within its borders.
If a densely populated state like New Jersey has the potential, theoretically at least, to feed
all its residents, the prospects for other states to feed their residents must be at least as favor-
able. In other words, there is probably an untapped potential to relocalize large segments of
local food economies.
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