ROOM AT THE TABLE - Intersight - University at Buffalo

land, clearly beyond the existing agricultural land footprint. Erie County’s
current population would require 70 percent of Erie County’s total land to
meet the current eating patterns of its residents.
B. Land Required
Given that there is not enough land to produce food to meet current
national standards, and knowing that Erie County’s average consumption
of healthy is not in line with government regulations, Erie County would
need even more land to provide an increased amount of healthy food to its
residents. If food were made available in Erie County such that there would
be enough food to meet the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) set by
the USDA for each food group, the county would require 1,064,857 tons of
food per year. To meet the RDA for foods, a much greater amount of fruits
(295,105 tons per year), vegetables (344,517 tons per year), and meat and
eggs (147,971 tons per year) would be needed while a lower amount of
grains and dairy would be necessary (See Table 7.5).
Assuming current land use patterns and food production practices,
current cropland in Erie County would only be able to generate 9.85 percent
of the RDA required for its population (See Table 7.5).
To reiterate, there is a wide gap between the amount of food Erie
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nutritional requirements of the county’s population (a shortage of nearly
960,000 tons of food per year). To provide this healthier food, the county
would need to devote a total of 548,194 acres (nearly 82% of its entire area)
to raising crops (See Table 7.6). For example, more than 93,000 acres of
land would be required just to produce the amount of vegetables necessary
for the county’s population to meet the recommended four daily servings of
vegetables. Currently, there are only 2,242 acres in vegetable production.
In short, for the population of Erie County to meet the RDA standards with
food produced within the county, Erie County would need to allocate 4.5
times more land to growing crops.
84
Table 7.4 – Cropland Required for 100% Food Self­
Reliance (per national standards) in Erie County
Required Cropland Area
Food Group Acreage % of Total
Grain 44,493 9.49
Beef 225,251 48.06
Fruits 23,935 5.11
Vegetables 48,716 10.39
Dairy 63,004 13.44
Poultry 27,787 5.93
Egg 9,870 2.11
Total Cropland 468,678 100
(Source: Author Analysis)
Table 7.5 – Self­Reliance in Food Under RDA
Requirement, Erie County
Amount of Food (tons/year)
Food Group
Currently
Produced
Required
for RDA
Consumption
Current Self­
Reliance (%)
Grain 3,602.90 70,427.91 5.12
Meats & eggs 23,045.42 147,971.71 15.57
Fruits 9,283.39 295,105.34 3.15
Vegetables 8,267.03 344,517.63 2.40
Dairy 60,676.07 206,834.77 29.34
Average 104,874.81 1,064,857.36 9.85
(Source: Author Analysis)