Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont, United States
Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Disclosure(s):
Ashley McCarthy, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: Increased fruit and vegetable consumption would have important health benefits but would also have significant impacts on the US agricultural system and it is unclear where additional production to meet increased consumption could occur. The purpose of this study was to estimate the extent to which nine regions of the contiguous United States could meet current and recommended fruit and vegetable consumption through regional production based on biophysical capacity.
Methods: We developed geospatial models to identify and quantify land suitable for producing F&V crops across the contiguous U.S. based on biophysical constraints. Then, state-level crop yields were linked to the suitability maps to estimate production capacity. Finally, we used a net-balance approach to compare production capacity to consumption in order to estimate regional self-reliance and the cropland requirements to enable regional self-reliance for fruits and vegetables. The analysis was conducted for two diet scenarios: 1) current consumption levels based the USDA-ERS Food Availability Data System and 2) consumption levels recommended in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Results: All regions could theoretically meet the fruit and vegetable needs of their population through regional production under both diet scenarios. However, regional self-reliance and cropland requirements to enable self-reliance for fruits and vegetables varied substantially across regions. To meet current consumption levels, cropland requirements range from a low of 110,000 hectares in the West North Central region to a high of 1.2 million hectares in the Northeast region and cropland requirements to meet recommended consumption are approximately double those required to meet current consumption across all regions.
Conclusions: Our results indicate that regional self-reliance for fruits and vegetables is biophysically possible for all regions in the study area, but would require substantial changes in dietary patterns and land use. These findings provide insight into the feasibility of regional fruit and vegetable production systems as a strategy to increase production and the domestic supply of produce.
