The structure of agriculture in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan America

Abstract

This study refined existing measures of U.S. agricultural structure and included additional measures to address geospatial features of crop production relative to metropolitan areas in the 1990s. The human ecological framework was applied to answer the following questions: (1) What was the structure of U.S. agricultural production systems in 1992 and had this structure changed by 1997? (2) What was the relationship between metropolitan proximity and U.S. agristructure and its changes from 1992 to 1997 at the county level? (3) What was the relationship between U.S. production regions and change in U.S. agristructure from 1992 to 1997? (4) What was the relationship between metropolitan proximity and commodity production and has this relationship changed during the 1990s? (5) Was U.S. agristructure associated with the production of particular crop commodities and have these relationships changed during the 1990s? (6) How did metropolitan proximity, agristructure, and production regions affect commodity production and have these relationships changed during the 1990s? Bivariate analysis was conducted to determine various relationships among the independent variables and between independent and dependent variables. Results included regional and proximal variation of agristructure. Furthermore, total crop, grain, cotton, nursery/greenhouse, fruit/vegetable, and "other crop" sales revenues varied by metropolitan proximity, region, and farm system size. Ordinary least squares regression was employed to examine the effect of metropolitan proximity on crop commodity revenues, while controlling for agristructure and resource region. Nursery/greenhouse and fruit/vegetable sales revenues were greatest in counties closest to metropolitan areas in each year of analysis. In contrast, grain sales were highest in counties furthest from metropolitan areas. Metropolitan proximity had no effect on revenues of total crop sales and "other crop" sales for 1997 and on cotton revenues for both 1992 and 1997. Results demonstrated the coexistence of intense, lucrative crop production and large, urban populations in contiguous space.