Cargando…
Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis
The capacity of US agriculture to increase the output of specific foods to accommodate increased demand is not well documented. This research uses geospatial modeling to examine the capacity of the US agricultural landbase to increase the per capita availability of an example set of nutrient-dense f...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664607/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28946618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14101106 |
_version_ | 1783275014230900736 |
---|---|
author | Conrad, Zach Peters, Christian J. Chui, Kenneth Jahns, Lisa Griffin, Timothy S. |
author_facet | Conrad, Zach Peters, Christian J. Chui, Kenneth Jahns, Lisa Griffin, Timothy S. |
author_sort | Conrad, Zach |
collection | PubMed |
description | The capacity of US agriculture to increase the output of specific foods to accommodate increased demand is not well documented. This research uses geospatial modeling to examine the capacity of the US agricultural landbase to increase the per capita availability of an example set of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. These fruits and vegetables were selected based on nutrient content and an increasing trend of domestic production and consumption. Geographic information system models were parameterized to identify agricultural land areas meeting crop-specific growing requirements for monthly precipitation and temperature; soil depth and type; cropland availability; and proximity to existing production centers. The results of these analyses demonstrate that crop production can be expanded by nearly 144,000 ha within existing national production centers, generating an additional 0.05 cup-equivalents of fruits and vegetables per capita per day, representing a 1.7% increase above current total F&V availability. Expanding the size of national crop production centers can further increase the availability of all F&V by 2.5%–5.4%, which is still less than the recommended amount. Challenges to increasing F&V production in the US include lack of labor availability, barriers to adoption among producers, and threats to crop yields from environmental concerns. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5664607 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-56646072017-11-06 Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis Conrad, Zach Peters, Christian J. Chui, Kenneth Jahns, Lisa Griffin, Timothy S. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The capacity of US agriculture to increase the output of specific foods to accommodate increased demand is not well documented. This research uses geospatial modeling to examine the capacity of the US agricultural landbase to increase the per capita availability of an example set of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. These fruits and vegetables were selected based on nutrient content and an increasing trend of domestic production and consumption. Geographic information system models were parameterized to identify agricultural land areas meeting crop-specific growing requirements for monthly precipitation and temperature; soil depth and type; cropland availability; and proximity to existing production centers. The results of these analyses demonstrate that crop production can be expanded by nearly 144,000 ha within existing national production centers, generating an additional 0.05 cup-equivalents of fruits and vegetables per capita per day, representing a 1.7% increase above current total F&V availability. Expanding the size of national crop production centers can further increase the availability of all F&V by 2.5%–5.4%, which is still less than the recommended amount. Challenges to increasing F&V production in the US include lack of labor availability, barriers to adoption among producers, and threats to crop yields from environmental concerns. MDPI 2017-09-23 2017-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5664607/ /pubmed/28946618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14101106 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Conrad, Zach Peters, Christian J. Chui, Kenneth Jahns, Lisa Griffin, Timothy S. Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis |
title | Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis |
title_full | Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis |
title_fullStr | Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis |
title_full_unstemmed | Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis |
title_short | Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis |
title_sort | agricultural capacity to increase the production of select fruits and vegetables in the us: a geospatial modeling analysis |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664607/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28946618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14101106 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT conradzach agriculturalcapacitytoincreasetheproductionofselectfruitsandvegetablesintheusageospatialmodelinganalysis AT peterschristianj agriculturalcapacitytoincreasetheproductionofselectfruitsandvegetablesintheusageospatialmodelinganalysis AT chuikenneth agriculturalcapacitytoincreasetheproductionofselectfruitsandvegetablesintheusageospatialmodelinganalysis AT jahnslisa agriculturalcapacitytoincreasetheproductionofselectfruitsandvegetablesintheusageospatialmodelinganalysis AT griffintimothys agriculturalcapacitytoincreasetheproductionofselectfruitsandvegetablesintheusageospatialmodelinganalysis |