The mid-nineteenth century saw a revolution in transportation — and advances in railways and steamships allowed for the movement of massive amounts of grain from rural farms to urban centers. In the 1850s alone, the amount of farmland in the United States grew by one hundred million acres, and over half of these acres were in just seven Midwestern states. Consumers increasingly purchased food grown hundreds or thousands of miles from where they lived. This trend continued into the twentieth century, with truck transport gaining in efficiency.
Why On-Farm Storage is Important to Both Farmers and Buyers
Updated: Mar 25, 2020