Kitchen Gardeners International: Kitchen gardens: crunching the numbers
Here's something for the statistically-inclined among us. It shows the slow and steady decline of kitchen gardens as a source of food over the past 100 years. To make a long story short, home food production now accounts for 1.5%of the total food produced in the US in terms of value, down from a high of 35% in 1869 when the figures were first kept.
Are we discouraged? Heck no. We know a good thing when we plant one. Plus, part of knowing where we want to go is knowing where we are. We are at 1.5%. So, now the better question, where do we want to go?
|
YEAR |
(A) TOTAL FOOD SALES IN MILLIONS $ |
(B) VALUE OF HOME-GROWN FOODS IN MILLIONS $ |
(C) GRAND TOTAL OF A PLUS B |
VALUE OF HOME –PRODUCED FOODS AS % OF GRAND TOTAL |
|
1894 |
2,598 |
1,306 |
3,904 |
33.45% |
|
1904 |
4,857 |
1,771 |
6,628 |
26.72% |
|
1924 |
13,084 |
4,278 |
17,362 |
24.64% |
|
1944 |
20,067 |
5,010 |
25,077 |
19.98% |
|
1964 |
54,716 |
3,988 |
58,704 |
6.79% |
|
1984 |
222,847 |
8,610 |
231,457 |
3.72% |
|
2004 |
460,793 |
7,405 |
468,198 |
1.58% |
Posted by KGI on March 15, 2006 3:44 PM to Kitchen Gardeners International
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