Americans are Worried About the Food Chain – Here is How it was Built

2. American farms became self-supporting mini-industries

The small American farm, operated by the family occupying it, became the rule in the decades following the Revolution. Farmers grew crops which fed their family first, selling the remainder to consumers. Grain often went to market in the form of alcoholic beverages; corn became food for hogs, which were driven to slaughter on the hoof. The transportation industry did not have the technology necessary for large shipments to the eastern cities. Reliance on animals for motive power made the shipping of fresh food over distances impossible. Farmers’ markets grew in American cities, where seasonal vegetables arrived from local farms.

American farms became small industrial sites, though most employed few permanently, seeking help during the planting and harvesting seasons. Springhouses, root cellars, and smokehouses became common. America’s emerging farms planted grains for consumption by humans and animals, and corn became the most planted crop in America, a distinction it retains in the 21^st century. Corn could be dried and ground into meal, converted to pork or alcohol, or eaten fresh in season. Dried, cracked corn became a staple in rural American larders, and favored by trappers and woodsmen during long hunts.

3. The steam engine changed the way Americans ate

In the 1820s steamboats appeared on American waterways. They were unreliable, blew up with alarming frequency, and operated on schedules dictated by the owner’s whims. Most refused to embark on a passage without a full load of cargo. Machinery and farm implements, ready-made clothing, raw materials, and other items made in eastern cities or Europe voyaged to the west, and the boats returned with the products of American farms. Farmers in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, drove hogs to Cincinnati and other cities along the Ohio River, where they were processed and sent by steamboat to Wheeling, then in Virginia, or Pittsburgh, or downriver to New Orleans.

Railroads developed links between the cities in the west and to the east coast prior to the Civil War. By the late 1850s, oysters harvested along the east coast arrived in Cincinnati and St. Louis weekly, packed in barrels for sale to consumers and restaurants. Both households and restaurants purchased foodstuffs from the same sources, as yet no commercial restaurant industry had emerged. Some restaurants purchased food directly from farmers. In the eastern cities, restaurants purchased foods imported from Europe and South America, often buying them directly from the ship on which they arrived.

4. The emergence of ethnic neighborhoods

In America’s cities, ethnic neighborhoods grew, with communities of Germans immigrants in midwestern cities, Chinese in California, and Mexicans in the southwest. They brought with them tastes for foods from the old country, and shops featuring imported products appeared. They were joined by street vendors and restaurants featuring their own cuisines, such as shark fin in Chinese shops, olive oil and pasta in Italian shops, German sauerkraut and sausages. American general stores and food shops did not feature such ethnic products, nor did most urban Americans dine in ethnic restaurants during the 19^th century.

The needs of the ethnic shops and restaurants created the first large-scale shipments of food from Europe to America, which once had been limited to mostly wine, and some specialty meats. German immigrants, thirsty for the beers of their homeland to wash down their sausages, created the American brewing industry, with nearly all American cities developing regional beers, such as Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Pabst in Milwaukee, Genesee in Rochester, New York, and Cincinnati’s Christian Moerlein, which was exported to London and cities in the German states. For the most part, as they did with their food, Americans drank beer produced locally, rather than relying on a shipping and distribution system.

Read More: 10 Unexpected Innovations in History that Change the Way You Eat.

5. America remained self-reliant for food through the first half of the 20^th century

America shipped food products across its expanse, its borders with Mexico and Canada, and to overseas trade partners, but imported relatively little. One exception, bananas, grew steadily in consumption rates, nearly all of them imported from South America. In the early 20^th century, large cannery operations began to purchase food from farmers, preserved it in cans, and sold canned food to distributors. More links began to appear in the chain connecting food from farm to table. Earlier, food manufacturing emerged in the United States. The meatpackers which once simply dressed animals for sale to butchers and grocers introduced their own products. Armour, Heinz, LeSueur, and many others were widely known brands in the first decade of the 20^th century.

In 1925 Wonder Bread was introduced, bread arriving at markets already sliced and wrapped. By 1930 it was known nationwide. Wonder Bread was often served with Peter Pan, a peanut butter introduced in 1920 by Swift and Company, and sold in cans until World War II. In American communities, the concept of large grocery stores selling all foods under a single roof appeared with the first Piggly Wiggly store in 1916. Safeway and Kroger soon followed suit, the latter having existed as a local market serving Cincinnati since 1883. Americans’ food supply went from farm, to processors, to distributors, to stores, shipped by trains, trucks, barges, and ships. By the advent of World War II, the supply chain was complex, and vulnerable to disruption at many points.

6. Lend Lease and American food rationing

During the early years of the Second World War, Britain relied on food imports from the United States and Canada to feed its population at home, and its troops throughout the Empire. During the period of Lend-Lease, the American food production chain routed food to Great Britain, and later the Soviet Union. The US government also prepared to impose food rationing on the United States, an option already in place in Britain. It was the first federally imposed restrictions on the purchase of food ever in the United States, imposed following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The first American food rationed, sugar, in May, 1942, was followed by rationing of meat, cheese, processed foods, and many other foodstuffs.

Most American grocers and the food production change welcomed the rationing, since in the weeks which followed Pearl Harbor and the disastrous campaign in the Philippines, panic buying and hoarding affected supplies. Retailers, weary of arbitrating disputes between customers and their employees, supported rationing almost unanimously. Black marketers did not, and a spate of delivery truck hijackings was quashed by the FBI and in some cases local law enforcement. Rationing stabilized the availability of food in stores, though shortages of some items, such as coffee, continued through most of 1943, since the ships bringing it to America sailed in waters infested with German U-boats.

7. The emergence of the modern food chain

Post-World War II, Americans began their move to the suburbs. With them went the large supermarkets, which grew larger as they sprawled outside the cities. The specialty shops, the butchers, bakers, poulterers, fishmongers, vanished into the supermarkets, other than the ethnic specialty shops. The suburban landscape homogenized. But Americans returning from Europe brought with them the taste they developed for European foods, especially Italian cuisine. Pizza became a popular dish in the United States in the 1950s. Prior to then, it was consumed mainly in Italian ethnic neighborhoods.

In 1954, Joseph Bucci received a patent for frozen pizza, sold in stores and baked at home by American consumers. He applied for the patent in 1950, and before he received it frozen pizzas were common in the stores of the American northeast. Frozen pizzas from numerous marketers appeared throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and the pie became a major part of the food chain. By 1995 frozen pizza accounted for $1 billion in sales, and sales have continued to grow annually ever since. In the early 21^st century, Americans consumed 350 tons of frozen pizza annually, and they are just a small part of the overall sales of pizza in the United States.

8. Richard and Maurice McDonald created several links in the food distribution chain

The success of McDonald’s, created by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940, though not as a franchise operation until 1953, changed the American food distribution chain in several ways. McDonald’s became the world’s largest restaurant chain by the 21^st century. Yet its success created numerous competitive chains, some of which faded into history while others thrived. One of its signature products, the French fry, presents an example of how events disrupt America’s food chain. A disruption of sales for the fast-food industry creates a glut of frozen French fries in the hands of suppliers, who then cannot purchase potatoes from farmers.

At the same time, pressures on grocery stores from consumers purchasing frozen French fries for at-home consumption create a shortage, and the companies producing them can’t keep up with demand. Nor can the commercial French fry producers shift production and packaging to meet the increase in at-home consumption. The system which evolved beginning in the 1950s became entirely dependent on the fast food and other restaurant companies purchasing their products. Thus, in a time of shortages of frozen potato products, farmers have no choice other than to destroy their crops, having no other market through which to sell them. Similar disruptions occur throughout the food chain.

9. American fruit and vegetable production

Up to the 1970s, the United States exported more fruits and vegetables than it imported. Since then the balance has shifted, with the United States becoming a net importer of fruits and vegetables, by a steadily widening margin. Most of the fruit and vegetables consumed at American tables are imported, whether fresh or processed. Through the 1980s, Americans associated pineapples with the Dole plantations in Hawaii, but by the end of that decade, most pineapple consumed by Americans came from South America, chiefly Brazil. The American food distribution chain relies on imports of fruits and vegetables to meet the demands of consumers.

The need is reflected in crops planted by American farmers. As noted, corn is the most widely planted crop in America, with corn sales accounting for about $64 million annually. Next is soybeans, about $38 million, most of which are sold to be processed into animal feed. Between the two, nearly 50% of all farm production is accounted for. Other fruits and vegetables, including nuts, account for less than $45 million. Since the end of the 20^th century, America has relied on imports of fruits and vegetables, with over half coming from neighbors Mexico and Canada.

10. The food distribution chain disrupted the American small farm

According to Vox.com, nearly two-thirds of all American farm production comes from just 4% of all farms. The large farms which dominate American farm production are contracted with or controlled by big agribusinesses. Small American farms, family-owned and operated, which operate profitably solely by farming began vanishing in the second half of the 20th century. About half of all American farms realize $10,000 or less in the sale of farm products annually. As the 20^th century waned many turned to other sources of income to retain their farms.

Small family farms thrived until the 1950s, and have been in decline ever since. One reason for so many vanishing was the pressure on land during the expansion into the suburbs following World War II, which continues in the 21^st century. Although exceptions certainly emerged, with some small farmers specializing in organic products and other techniques of the past, the trend of large farms dominating American food production continued to expand through the first decades of the 21^st century.

11. America’s restaurants sell more than half of its food

Most of America’s food moves by truck, both across the nation and within communities. About 33,000 separate establishments comprised the wholesale food industry in the first decade of the 21^st century. Some evolved into broad line distributors beginning in the 1950s, offering a wide range of products under several different brand names. Others became more specialized. During the 1980s, wholesale food distribution to chain restaurants and other institutional customers exceeded that to retailers such as grocery chains. In other words, more of the American food supply goes to customers other than at-home consumers of food.

At a glance, one can surmise that disruption of America’s food service industry, particularly it’s chain restaurants which share menus and products nationally, is of necessity disruptive of the entire food supply. The bulk of America’s food moves from processors to wholesalers to restaurants via trucks, most of them refrigerated, which meet tight delivery schedules to ensure restaurants are supplied with new products as needed. Rerouting food packaged for restaurants to replace supplies in stores is an impossibility for many reasons, including lack of federal requirements for labeling which must be applied for food sold in stores.

12. America’s food chain became reliant on imported food on the late 20^th century

Whether restaurants or retail stores, American food distribution runs on razor-thin profit margins. America’s chain restaurants, both fast-food and casual dining, maintain a spirited competition for customers, driven by the need to keep prices low. The same applies to grocery stores. The result is the importation of food at an ever-increasing rate, with foreign producers outpacing American farms. Not only fruits and vegetables in American stores and restaurants come from overseas. Beef raised in foreign countries ranging from Australia to Namibia appears in American markets, with much of it labeled “Product of USA”.

The misleading labels which exist to ensure Americans are consuming products raised on American farms come from changes in labeling laws in the late 20^th and early 21^st century. Meat from Australia, Canada, Brazil, and other trade partners which undergo any processing in a USDA-certified plant is labeled as a “Product of USA”, regardless of where the animal from which it came was raised. The cheaper price for imported meat at all grades pressured American farmers and ranchers beginning in the late 20^th century, leading to decreases in American beef production as cheaper imports continued to flood the market, becoming a significant portion of America’s food production chain.

13. The creation of the United States Department of Agriculture

Early America’s largely agrarian society created demands for improvements in seeds, plants, fertilization, irrigation, and animal husbandry. The federal government created a division within the Patent Office in 1839 to address the needs. In 1862 Abraham Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture, though the department’s leading officer did not attain a seat in the President’s Cabinet. In 1887 the House and Senate approved legislation that approved Cabinet status for the Secretary of Agriculture, though the Congressional houses failed to pass the bill through a joint committee. Not until 1889 did the Secretary of Agriculture achieve Cabinet-level status.

The USDA’s role in the food chain for Americans increased throughout the 20^th century. Tasked with inspection of food and processing plants to ensure purity and wholesomeness, the USDA eventually required truth in labeling regarding the nutritional content of foods, applied to all food and beverage products sold for consumption in the United States. The USDA also grew to provide direct nutritional support to financially distressed families, through programs such as food stamps, today referred to as SNAP, and supporting programs in which children receive much of their daily nutrition through the schools.

14. The role of the federal government in American food production

Until the Great Depression, the USDA acted primarily as an advisory body regarding most Americans, generating recommendations regarding diet and nutrition for Americans. Following the First World War, American farmers enjoyed a booming market for the first few years, supplying food to Europe as the war-ravaged farms of the continent attempted to recover. At the end of 1923 European markets for American food dried up. American farmers held surplus crops and animals, and prices received for their products declined rapidly in the years leading to the Great Depression. Already badly hit financially, many farmers were unable to plant crops, or sell those they had harvested, during the first three years of the depression.

The New Deal ushered in by the Roosevelt Administration changed the role of the USDA and forever altered the American food production chain. Following the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933, for the first time, the federal government manipulated the food supply by paying farmers for not growing certain crops and subsidizing the production of others. Five years later Congress passed a more comprehensive Agriculture Act, and every five or so years since an omnibus bill for farms, generally referred to as the Farm Bill, has been enacted. The bill aids farmers, large food production conglomerates, and others in the food production chain by manipulating the cost of America’s food supply.

15. “Just in time” system developed in the food production chain in the late 20^th century

America’s changing tastes and lifestyles in the 1950s created the need for the food production chain to respond on a just-in-time basis. Larger, wealthier firms edged out smaller local producers. National brands replaced local labels, either through mergers or buyouts, or simply driving them out of business. Every level of the food production chain relied on their supplier being ready and capable of meeting their needs in a timely manner, rather than maintaining large inventories of product. Once seasonal foods began to appear in supermarkets throughout the year. Changing tastes also dictated what appeared in stores, and when.

For example, in the 1950s, avocados were rare in American stores, outside of ethnic neighborhoods or in the Southwest. Today they are commonly found, throughout the year, in supermarkets, both fresh, and processed. Corn on the cob and watermelons, once symbols of summer, are likewise found in supermarkets during the winter months, mostly imported. Because each link of the food production chain relies on the readiness of their supplier as well as the demands of their consumers, a disruption anywhere on the chain disrupts the whole, with the result of farmers destroying products they cannot sell as end consumers experience shortages of the same, or related products.

16. Staggering amounts of food are wasted in America annually

Over the past seven decades, despite the efficiency of the food production and distribution chain, food waste rose annually. In the early 21^st century, estimates from diverse organizations claimed up to 50% of produce grown in the United States never makes it to the table. It is thrown away by grocery stores, restaurants, and consumers, having lasted beyond its shelf life. Much of it, even that grown in private gardens, is never harvested. The proliferation of “use by dates” added to the amount of food wasted, though they are intended to indicate peak freshness, rather than a definite time for the food to be used or thrown out.

Nearly all of the waste occurs at the consumer end of the chain. Producers and distributors operating on thin profit margins developed means of recycling waste products, into animal feed, fertilizers, biofuels, and other products. In 2010, the USDA released a statement which estimated up to 40% of the total food supply was wasted, at a cost of $161 billion. Wastage continued to rise each year in the following decade. That same year 133 billion pounds of food in all forms were destroyed as waste, much of it in the form of fresh produce, milk, and meats. The estimate did not include food served at tables which simply wasn’t consumed, and ended up in the trash, nor leftovers which remained in refrigerators for a time before being relegated to the garbage can.

17. The creation of food deserts

The definition of a food desert, according to the USDA, is a distance of more than one mile from a supermarket in an urban or suburban area, or a distance of more than 10 miles in rural areas. Food deserts typically appear in less affluent areas, where people frequently have fewer transportation options. Large supermarket chains find such areas less desirable for their operations, and though they frequently have more convenience shops in urban communities, they lack fresh food and produce. Instead, they offer more packaged and processed foods, of less nutritional quality, particularly for children.

As noted, grocery operators experience thin margins for profits. This led them to avoid opening stores in areas where sales aren’t likely to be profitable. According to the USDA, at the end of the 20^th century over 20 million Americans lived in areas designated as food deserts. Of those, about 10% live in rural food deserts, most attributed to the presence of a large grocery retailer driving smaller operators out of business. Nonetheless, many residents live outside the ten-mile radius from the store and with less mobility, qualify as living in a food desert. Studies of food deserts indicate that those living within them receive far less of the recommended daily intakes of fruit, vegetables, and fresh meats.

18. Fast food companies often exploit food deserts

In both urban and rural food deserts, fast food chains and convenience stores offering processed and packaged prepared foods often abound. Both take advantage of the reduced mobility found in food deserts, where a trip to a supermarket is time-consuming and less convenient. The convenience stores often present some of the same items found at supermarkets, but at much higher prices. Food deserts are often found in less-educated communities, where knowledge of adequate nutrition is less commonly found. Food deserts were the creation of both the shift to the suburbs and the shaping of the food distribution chain during the late 20^th century.

Several studies by government agencies and universities at the beginning of the 21^st century found a disproportionate number of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores in urban areas otherwise designated food deserts by the USDA. A study of demographics in New Orleans found neighborhoods which were predominantly black averaged 2.4 fast-food restaurants per square mile, while those predominantly white averaged 1.5. Studies in other American cities indicated fast-food companies in the 1980s and 1990s deliberately targeted food deserts, where the absence of large supermarkets widens their potential customer base.

19. The development of private brands

National and regional brands of processed and packaged foods dominated the market before World War II. Following the war, expansion into the suburbs led to the expansion of supermarkets in the new neighborhoods. Many introduced private brands, available only within stores of their chain. They eventually led the larger retailers to also become processors and packagers of foods. By the end of the 20^th century, the growth of private brands exceeded that of the better known, and often more expensive, national brands. Some, such as Eight O’clock Coffee, survived the demise of the chain which created them. A&P created Eight O’clock Coffee, and though the chain is gone the brand is still sold in other stores.

By the 1970s, large national brand companies, such as Campbell’s Soup, used extra plant capacity to manufacture private brands that competed directly with their own label. Other companies manufactured private brands for numerous chains, under different labels. Still others, such as retail giant Kroger, owned plants where foods sold under their private brands were processed and packaged. Kroger created several private food brands in the late 20^th century and continues to do so today, many of which compete with higher-priced luxury brands, rather than simply offering a lower-priced alternative to national brands.

20. The essential migrant farm workers

Migrant farm workers worked in the American food supply chain throughout the 20^th century, though in declining numbers after they peaked during World War II. Migrant workers provided the low-cost labor necessary throughout the farm year, planting, weeding, harvesting, and packing. Despite the mechanization of much farm labor, the industrialization of the entire food production process in the United States, they still provide a vital link during key phases of the process. Ripened tomatoes on the vine intended for supermarkets need to be harvested by hand, and quickly. Migrants perform the intensive labor, for among the lowest wages paid to any workers in the United States.

The migrant workers travel across the United States, following the work patterns of the growing seasons. Many of the fruits and vegetables grown in America need to be harvested by hand, as machinery bruises or otherwise damages the crops. Appearance is of particular concern for fresh fruits and vegetables destined for supermarkets or restaurant suppliers. Such concern isn’t present when considering tomatoes destined to become catsup or sauce at a processing plant. Throughout American history, migrant farm workers played a critical role in the building of the food distribution system, a role which is often still required.

21. Buy local and farm-to-table trends.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, a backlash occurred against the American agribusiness, perceived as hostile to healthy living. It began with an investigative report on the use of Alar on apples, broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes in February, 1989. After a massive public reaction, which included accusations the report was false and Alar posed no danger to the public, the EPA banned the substance, claiming “long-term exposure to Alar poses unacceptable risks to public health”. It was the first shot in an ongoing war between consumers and food producers over food safety in the United States.

Debate over the risks posed by Alar and other chemicals used in American agriculture continued for the rest of the century, and continues today. They gave birth to the organic farming movement, debate over what can and cannot be called organic, the free-range movement, the cage-free chickens and eggs movement, and the push to buy locally sourced products rather than those produced and processed by large agribusiness firms. By the end of the 20^th century, even large supermarket chains such as Kroger and Safeway were supportive of the sale of locally grown produce in their stores, with advertisements in-house touting the produce from nearby farms.

22. The development of urban farming

Urban farming in the United States began in the 1940s, with community gardens sponsored by private groups. By the 1980s numerous cities offered garden plots in parks for residents. In some cities, gardens originally planted as Victory Gardens during the Second World War returned to use, and coalitions of restaurant owners and shops in urban markets grow the fresh produce they sell to consumers within their city’s corporate limits. Rooftop farms convert dead space into productive farms, providing fresh produce while at the same time reducing oxygen and contributing to the cooling of the city during the growing season.

Chicago, unlike the rest of America’s major cities, never outlawed the rearing of livestock for slaughter within the city limits. Other cities have followed their philosophy, allowing the slaughter of chickens in city markets, as long as the act isn’t visible to the public. Numerous cities established apiaries on urban farms, raising bees and producing honey for sale on the premises, and in markets. Urban farms include the vertical walls of buildings in some cities, where herbs and other vegetables grow on what otherwise would be empty space. Rooftop and urban farming is a growing industry throughout the United States, contributing fresh fruits and vegetables and other farm products directly to the communities which support them.

23. Urban farming is a return to America’s past

For some urban farmers, harvests are intended for consumption by the participants contributing to the farms. For others, the practice is a capitalistic enterprise, with products sold for profit at markets and restaurants. Both entities offer measurable benefits to the city in which they farm, and by the end of the 20^th century American cities across the country recognized the benefits and altered local zoning codes to allow commercial agriculture. Benefits included better management of stormwater runoff, improved air quality, and natural cooling.

It also provided fresh produce at reduced costs, since the cost of shipping over large distances was eliminated. In the early 21^st century, urban farmers began to process some foods, offering them in community markets and local supermarkets, including canned fruits and vegetables as well as frozen, and locally grown herbs and spices. Urban farming grew to include greenhouse farms in formerly empty spaces and reclaimed lots. Most feature organically grown products and offer seasonal jobs to city residents on what was formerly abandoned land. America’s cities once before featured vegetables grown within their limits. Modern urban farms are a return to the past using 21^st century technology.

24. America’s food distribution system changed as the country’s tastes changed

Before the American Civil War, beef seldom appeared on American tables other than those of the most affluent. Beef was expensive to raise, and its price in butcher shops prohibited its consumption by the working class. By the time of the Gilded Age, the situation had changed. America’s western lands supported vast herds of cattle, driven to the railheads for shipment east via the Chicago Stockyards. New Yorkers dined on beef raised in the west. Beef became affordable to all, and supplanted pork as the primary source of protein for Americans. By the 1950s Americans consumed more beef per capita than any other country in the world.

Americans also came to consume other agricultural products by eating beef, through the intricacies of the food distribution chain. For example, an Illinois farmer may sell his crops of corn and soybeans to a large agribusiness. After harvest, the crops move to grain elevators in nearby Iowa. From their they move to a Nebraska feedlot, consumed by cattle before slaughter, and shipped as fresh or frozen beef to restaurants or markets. America’s food distribution chain is complex and intricately interconnected, which is why the loss of a corn crop one summer disrupts the supply of ground beef available for backyard grilling the following spring.

25. The food distribution chain is breakable as well as flexible

Natural disasters, such as hurricanes in Florida which destroy a whole season’s crops, or wildfires in California, or droughts in the Midwest, create adverse effects on the American food supply. The food distribution chain mitigates the damage to a large extent. Crops from other areas are distributed throughout the country as the system responds. As long as the transportation and delivery systems remain intact, food moves about the country efficiently and with relatively little disruption in prices, other than those driven largely by hoarding and panic buying.

As witnessed by the massive amount of food wasted daily in the United States, America is glutted with food. Farmers, ranchers, meat processors, gardeners, fruit growers, dairies, and those involved in the processing, packaging, marketing and preparing all forms of food in America ensured there was more than enough food available at the beginning of the 21^st century. Despite the growing influence of the eat local and farm-to-table movements, the international food distribution chain became essential to American diets. It will continue to evolve as it embraces new technologies in agriculture, transportation, and nutrition, ensuring Americans have the safest and most diverse food supply in the world.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

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“The Evolution of the American Brewing Industry”. Alfred G. Warner, Journal of Business Case Studies. November/December 2010. Online

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“End of an era: Maui Land & Pineapple closing its pineapple operations”. Derek Paiva, Hawai’i Magazine. November 4, 2009

“‘They’re Trying to Wipe Us Off the Map.’ Small American Farmers Are Nearing Extinction”. Alana Semuels, TIME Magazine. November 27, 2019

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“One reason why food intended for restaurants is not reallocated to supermarkets”. Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution. April 16, 2020. Online

“Most of America’s Fruit is Now Imported. Is That a Bad Thing?” David Karp, The New York Times. March 13, 2018

“USDA celebrates 150 years”. Article, United States Department of Agriculture. Online

“Getting Control of Just-In-Time”. Uday Karmarkar, Harvard Business Review. September/October, 1989

“Food Loss and Waste”. Article, US Food and Drug Administration. Online

“Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts”. Paula Dutko, Michele Ver Ploeg, Tracey Farrigan, USDA. Online

“Urban Agriculture”. Article, USDA. Online

“Rooftop Gardens Are Turning the Urban Shopping Scene Green”. Doreen Carvajal, The New York Times. October 25, 2018