Courtesy of The Rural Blog, I came across this story that researchers at the University of California – Merced have mapped the potential of every American city to obtain local food.

The study’s authors found that up to 90 percent of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown or raised within 100 of their homes.  Obviously, local food production is not at the same level as in the past, due to limited land resources, population growth, and suburbanization.  However, the possibility and potential remains for local food production.

The study suggests most of the United States could feed between 80 and 100 percent of their population with food raised or grown within a 50 mile radius.  This was calculated by looking at the farms within the radius, then estimating how many calories the farms could produce.  The study compared the potential calories grown or raised with the population of each city, thereby deriving the percentage of the population that could be fed.

This study could be of interest to those readers interested in local food and urban agriculture.  Check it out if you have a minute!