"The outcome of geographical concentration for the specialty crop industry is that some major urban areas of the United States are net importers of fresh fruits and vegetables by wide margins. For example, the Eastern Seaboard Region (ESR), spanning from Virginia to Maine, imports about 65% of vegetables and 80% of the fruits consumed in the region. Further, projections estimate that the ESR will add an additional 6.6 million people to the existing population of 69 million by 2030, creating an even larger megalopolis. Population growth in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. will almost certainly increase the imports of fruits and vegetables from other parts of the U.S. and the world."
This data was compiled by the USDA Agricultural Research Service office at Orono (New England Plant, Water, and Soil Laboratory), Maine as part of a larger Food Systems project that included MIT Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity, USDA ARS, USDA AMS, USDA ERS, Tufts, Penn State, and Iowa State.
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