ROOM AT THE TABLE - Intersight - University at Buffalo

A. Findings
Under current land use conditions, Erie County farmers would not
be able to produce enough food to meet the needs of Erie County residents.
In the United States, an average of 1,824 pounds of food is made available
for each American annually. If food were made available at a similar rate
in our region, Erie County residents would require about 839,093 tons of
food per year, including over 135,000 tons of meet and eggs, nearly 89,500
tons of grain, 279,256 tons of dairy and almost 298,000 tons of fruits and
vegetables (See Table 7.2). Existing cropland in Erie County does not
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farms are only producing 113,565.40 tons of food.
Self­reliance, as described earlier, under this scenario is highest
in dairy foods (21.75%) and lowest in vegetables (4.03%) and grains
(4.60%). *2On average, Erie County can produce 13.08 percent of all the
food its population requires (See Table 7.3).
A considerable gap exists between the amount of food Erie County
farmers currently produce and the amount of food that the county’s population
demands. In fact, in order to make food available to Erie County’s residents
at the same level as is made available to the average American, the county
would have to devote an additional 369,232 acres to agriculture, or a 371
percent increase over the current 99,445 acres of cropland. In other words,
the county would need to devote nearly 70 percent (468,678 acres) of its
total land area to planted cropland to satisfy this demand. The total land
area that would be required for each food category to achieve self­reliance
is staggering (See Table 7.4). Over 288,000 acres of land would be required
just to grow enough corn and hay to feed the number of cattle necessary to
satisfy the county’s current demand for beef and dairy products. This total
increase would represent approximately 70 percent of all of Erie County’s
* Self­reliancefood(a) = (weight of food a produced)/(weight of food a required);
thus, self­reliance = (9283.39)/(118085.77) x 100
fruits
83
Table 7.1 – Annual Food Production Under Current
Land Use, Erie County
Food Group Acres Weight (Tons)
Grains 1,793.39 3,602.90
Beef 73,694.31 22,896.21
Fruits 1,881.68 9,283.39
Vegetables 2,242.18 8,267.03
Dairy (milk) 13,702.64 60,676.07
Poultry 16.22 29.49
Eggs 79.85 119.723
Total 99,445.41 113,565.40
(Source: Author Analysis)
Table 7.2 – Food Required in Erie County (per
national food availability standards)
Food Group Amount (tons/year)
Grain 89,386.39
Meats & eggs 135,302.77
Fruits 118,085.64
Vegetables 179,619.52
Dairy 278,983.61
Total 801,377.93
(Source: Author Analysis)
Table 7.3 – Self­Reliance in Food Under Current
Land Use, Erie County
Food Group Self­Reliance (%)
Grain 4.03
Meats & eggs 17.03
Fruits 7.86
Vegetables 4.60
Dairy 21.75
Average 13.08
(Source: Author Analysis)