What % of [Place] is Devoted to Growing [Crop] ? | Crop | U.S. | Arizona | California | Florida | Texas | Other 46 States | | Corn | 29.8% | 6.8% | 8.5% | 1.8% | 11.0% | 32.1% | | Wheat | 16.5% | 10.3% | 4.6% | 0.3% | 20.0% | 16.7% | | Soy | 20.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 22.9% | | Cotton | 3.4% | 20.6% | 6.2% | 2.4% | 24.4% | 1.8% | | Sugarcane | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 11.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% | | Total of Above | 70.5% | 37.7% | 19.3% | 16.0% | 55.9% | 73.7% | | Veggies | 1.5% | 16.5% | 15.3% | 7.8% | 0.7% | 1.1% | | Orchard | 1.6% | 4.5% | 37.0% | 20.0% | 1.1% | 0.5% | | Fruit+Veg | 3.1% | 21.0% | 52.4% | 27.8% | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Clearly, each of these four states do not grow nearly as much in the commodities listed as the rest of the country. Texas grows the most of the four, but unlike most states, Texas grows a big bunch of cotton. Arizona grows a lot of cotton too. Florida grows very little in commodities, and much of the commodities they grow is sugarcane. And Arizona, California, and Florida grow far more in veggies and fruits than the rest of the country.
Let's look at this a different way:
What % of the Total U.S. Acres of [Crop] are Planted in [Place]?
| Crop | Arizona | California | Florida | Texas | Other 46 States |
| Total Crop Acres | 0.3% | 2.5% | 1.1% | 6.2% | 90.0% |
| Corn | 0.1% | 0.7% | 0.1% | 2.3% | 96.9% |
| Wheat | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 7.5% | 91.6% |
| Soy | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 99.8% |
| Cotton | 1.6% | 4.5% | 0.8% | 44.5% | 48.6% |
| Sugarcane | 0.0% | 0.0% | 44.7% | 0.0% | 55.3% |
| Veggies | 2.9% | 25.0% | 5.7% | 2.7% | 63.7% |
| Orchard | 0.7% | 56.1% | 13.4% | 4.3% | 25.5% |
Looking at this, just less than half of our cotton comes from Texas, and just less than half of our sugarcane comes from Florida. Over half of our fruit comes from California. So do a quarter of the veggies.
While just less than 2/3 of the veggies are grown in the other 46 states (and that's a good thing, if they are equally distributed around the nation where people can buy them locally), consider that those 46 states devote about the same amount of land to growing vegetables as they devote to growing corn for high fructose corn syrup. My hunch - which I'd have to investigate further - is that the veggies are only so "well-distributed" among states outside of California because potatoes count as a vegetable (and they are, in fact, the most popular vegetable).
Additionally, let's see how big the average fruit or veggie farm is in each place:
Average Veg Acreage Per Farm
US: 68 acres
AZ: 54 acres
CA: 302 acres
FL: 178 acres
TX: 54 acres
Other 46: 51 acres
Average Orchard Acreage Per Farm
US: 43 acres
AZ: 24 acres
CA: 72 acres
FL: 75 acres
TX: 24 acres
Other 46: 22 acres
Not too shocking... California and Florida's fruit, nut, & veg farms are, on average, much larger than those in the rest of the country. |
