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Abstract The United States and China are key nations in global agricultural and food trade. They share a complex bilateral agri-food trade network in which disruptions could have a global ripple effect. Yet, we do not understand the spatially resolved connections in the bilateral US–China agri-food trade. In this study, we estimate the bilateral agri-food trade between Chinese provinces and U.S. states and counties. First, we estimate bilateral imports and exports of agri-food commodities for provinces and states. Second, we model link-level connections between provinces and states/counties. To do this, we develop a novel algorithm that integrates a variety of national and international databases for the year 2017, including trade data from the US Census Bureau, the US Freight Analysis Framework database, and Multi-Regional Input-Output tables for China. We then adapt the food flow model for inter-county agri-food movements within the US to estimate bilateral trade through port counties. We estimate 2,954 and 162,922 link-level connections at the state-province and county-province resolution, respectively, and identify core nodes in the bilateral agri-food trade network. Our results provide a spatially detailed mapping of the US–China bilateral agri-food trade, which may enable future research and inform decision-makers.
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Network centrality in perishable food distribution networks in the United States
Abstract This analysis quantifies the network dynamics, geographic concentration, and disparities in perishable food supply networks for temperature-controlled food shipments in the United States. The United States forms the core of global food systems and produces more high-quality data for network analysis than most other countries. We use the 2017 US Census Commodity Flow Survey and other publicly available data to derive empirical results from the Food Flow Model for perishable meats and perishable prepared foods. We identify the top ten counties for perishable food distribution and find that the Los Angeles and Chicago regions support the greatest volumes of perishable food movements. States that largely exist outside national perishable food networks are Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia. Our analysis of US data highlights the importance of certain counties, states, and regions in perishable food networks and suggests areas where interventions could improve systems’ functions by increasing access to markets for farmers and access to food for underserved communities, especially those in rural regions.
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- PAR ID:
- 10584701
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research: Food Systems
- ISSN:
- 2976-601X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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