In general, society tends to associate agriculture with the southern states in the U.S. Whether this is due to the stereotypes sung in country songs across the nation, or some weird mumbo-jumbo we pulled out of mid air, I'm not quite sure. However, what I am quite sure of is this;
Agriculture is not just big in the southern most part of the United States.
In fact, in 2014, the top ten agricultural producing states are in descending order as follows:
1) California
2) Iowa
3) Texas
4) Nebraska
5) Illinois
6) Minnesota
7) Kansas
8) Indiana
9) North Carolina
10) Wisconsin
With a view of the map posted, we see that these top agricultural producing states tend to be all over the map. But why is this so?
Different factors such as population, soil types, climate, weather patterns, and many others affect agricultural production success. A state dense with people is less likely to have the space to withhold large and sprawling farms within its boarders. Along with this, states like Idaho and Wyoming, where we find dry soil and intense heat, will not hold the right conditions to support the growth of agricultural commodities. Lastly, weather patterns vary all over the country. States on the coasts get hurricanes, states out west get long periods of drought. There are areas like Tornado Alley, known for the obvious; vicious tornados and Washington State, known for its long rains. Weather patterns are a strange, yet very prevalent thing, affecting where agriculture may prosper, indefinitely.
With this being said, we can better understand why we see no pattern, theme, or general consistency to these prospering state's locations. Therefore, I confidently correct the stereotype that agriculture resounds in the southern most part of the United States, showing it to be much more widespread than it is believed.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/faqs.aspx#10
http://www.myexperttravel.com/usmap.html
Your blog was well written with quick information that gave me a perspective to think about where I first started to create the mindset that crop growing was more of a southern thing. I enjoyed that you put the list of the agricultural states, and the map with them all circled so I can recognize where the states actually are in relation to the others listed. The only formatting thing I would recommend that you change is to put one "Enter" line between the paragraph before the chart to lower the map. This would make the open area above and below the map more symmetrical and look overall nicer.
ReplyDelete