Arthur J. Lembo

Mapping potential foodsheds in New York State: A spatial model for evaluating the capacity to localize food production

Growing interest in local food has sparked debate about the merits of attempting to reduce the distance food travels. One point of contention is the capacity of local agriculture to meet the food needs of local people. In hopes of informing this debate, this research presents a method for mapping potential foodsheds, land areas that could theoretically feed urban centers. The model was applied to New York State (NYS). Geographic information systems were used to estimate the spatial distribution of food production capacity relative to the food needs of NYS population centers. Optimization tools were then applied to allocate production potential to meet food needs in the minimum distance possible. Overall, the model showed that NYS could provide 34% of its total food needs within an average distance of just 49 km. However, the model did not allocate production potential evenly. Most NYS population centers could have the majority of their food needs sourced in-state, except for the greater New York City (NYC) area. Thus, the study presents a mixed review of the potential for local food systems to reduce the distance food travels. While small- to medium-sized cities of NYS could theoretically meet their food needs within distances two orders of magnitude smaller than the current American food system, NYC must draw on more distant food-producing resources. Nonetheless, the foodshed model provides a successful template for considering the geography of food production and food consumption simultaneously. Such a tool could be valuable for examining how cities might change their food procurement to curb greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to depletion of petroleum and other energy resources necessary for long-distance transport of food.

Diversity of Listeria species in urban and natural environments.

ABSTRACT A total of 442 Listeria isolates, including 234 Listeria seeligeri, 80 L. monocytogenes, 74 L. welshimeri, 50 L. innocua, and 4 L. marthii isolates, were obtained from 1,805 soil, water, and other environmental samples collected over 2 years from four urban areas and four areas representing natural environments. Listeria spp. showed similar prevalences in samples from natural (23.4%) and urban (22.3%) environments. While L. seeligeri and L. welshimeri were significantly associated with natural environments (P ≤ 0.0001), L. innocua and L. monocytogenes were significantly associated with urban environments (P ≤ 0.0001). Sequencing of sigB for all isolates revealed 67 allelic types with a higher level of allelic diversity among isolates from urban environments. Some Listeria spp. and sigB allelic types showed significant associations with specific urban and natural areas. Nearest-neighbor analyses also showed that certain Listeria spp. and sigB allelic types were spatially clustered within both natural and urban environments, and there was evidence that these species and allelic types persisted over time in specific areas. Our data show that members of the genus Listeria not only are common in urban and natural environments but also show species- and subtype-specific associations with different environments and areas. This indicates that Listeria species and subtypes within these species may show distinct ecological preferences, which suggests (i) that molecular source-tracking approaches can be developed for Listeria and (ii) that detection of some Listeria species may not be a good indicator for L. monocytogenes.

Molecular characterization of Listeria monocytogenes from natural and urban environments

Characterization of 80 Listeria monocytogenes isolates from urban and natural environments differentiated 7 and 26 EcoRI ribotypes, respectively. Whereas the majority of isolates from the natural environment represented L. monocytogenes lineage II (12 of 13 isolates), urban isolates grouped evenly into lineages I and II (32 and 33 isolates, respectively) and included two lineage III isolates. Multilocus sequence typing of all natural isolates and a randomly selected subset of 30 urban isolates showed a higher overall diversity (Simpson index of discrimination [D] of 0.987 and 0.920, respectively) than did EcoRI ribotyping (D = 0.872 and 0.911, respectively). Combined analysis with ribotype and lineage data for 414 isolates from farm sources, 165 isolates from foods and food-processing environments, and 342 human clinical isolates revealed that lineage I was significantly more common among human (P < 0.0001) isolates, whereas lineage II was more common among isolates from the natural environment, farms, and foods (P < or = 0.05). Among a total of 92 ribotypes, 31 showed significant associations with specific isolate sources. One ribotype (DUP-1039C) was significantly associated with both natural environments and farms. A spatial analysis showed a marginal association between locations in the natural environment positive for L. monocytogenes and a proximity to farms. Our data indicate that (i) L. monocytogenes strains from different sources show a high level of diversity; (ii) L. monocytogenes subtypes differ significantly in their associations with different environments, even though populations overlap; and (iii) a higher proportion of isolates from environmental sources than from human clinical cases can be classified into L. monocytogenes lineage II, which supports the classification of this lineage as an environmentally adapted subgroup.

Mapping potential foodsheds in New York State by food group: An approach for prioritizing which foods to grow locally

Public interest in local food continues to grow, but few analyses have examined the capacity for the US population to be supplied through local and regional food systems. This paper extends earlier work that demonstrated a method for mapping potential foodsheds and estimating the potential for New York to meet the food needs of the states population centers. It provides a methodology for addressing the question, ‘If land is limited, which foods should be grown locally?’ A spatial model was developed to allocate the available agricultural land of New York State (NYS) to meet in-state food needs for six distinct food groups (grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat and eggs) across the eight largest population centers. An optimization routine was used to allocate land to maximize economic land use value (LUV). Eleven scenarios were examined, ranging from a baseline level of consumption of New York produced foods to a 100% local diet. Across the 11 scenarios, the amount of food supplied, the LUV attained, and the area of land allocated increased as the ‘willingness’ to consume local products increased. This approach dictated that land was preferentially devoted to higher-value food groups relative to lower-value groups, and no scenario used all available land. Under the 100% local scenario, 69% of total food needs (on a fresh weight basis) were supplied in-state with an average food distance of 238 km. This scenario provided food from only four of the six groups, namely, dairy, eggs, fruit and vegetables. These results suggest that a much larger proportion of total food needs (on a weight basis) might be provided from in-state production than was found in previous work. LUV serves as a compelling optimization function, and future work should investigate the degree to which maximizing returns to land complements or conflicts with social and environmental goals of local and regional food systems.

Comparison of suburban vaccine distribution strategies to control raccoon rabies.

Helicopters and hand baiting are commonly used to distribute vaccine-laden baits to help control raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies in suburban landscapes, but these techniques may be labor intensive, costly, or unavailable in some areas. We tested conventional baiting strategies against polyvinyl-chloride (PVC) bait stations in Erie County (New York, USA) during July and August 2003–05. Hand, helicopter, and bait station treatments were randomly assigned to six 25-km2 suburban study sites. To estimate the proportion of raccoons that ingested baits, tooth and blood samples from 954 raccoons were collected and examined for tetracycline biomarker and rabies-neutralizing antibodies, respectively. Overall, 38% (358/954) of the raccoons in Erie County tested positive for tetracycline; 16% (155/954) tested seropositive for rabies virus. Year of study significantly impacted biomarker prevalence; fewer raccoons tested positive for tetracycline in 2004. Probability of seropositivity increased with raccoon age. No statistically significant differences existed between baiting strategies and frequencies of biomarker and antibody-positive raccoons across all years combined. Thus, bait stations could be used as part of an integrated rabies control strategy.

Estimating the Potato Leafhopper Empoasca fabae (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) Overwintering Range and Spring Premigrant Development by Using Geographic Information System

Abstract The potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae (Harris), is a circular migratory pest of many crops in the United States that overwinters in the southern states. Northward migrant population arrival to the northern states occurs earlier in the north central states compared with northeastern states. Migrant leafhopper arrival to the north varies from year to year depending on factors influencing the development of spring migrants in the overwintering areas and on timing of weather systems capable of transporting the migrants northward. An estimate of the potato leafhopper minimum temperature survival, the geographic limits of the potato leafhopper overwintering range, leafhopper spring development in the overwintering areas, and the identification of the spring migration initiation northwards can help to predict the leafhopper arrival time in the northern states. In the current study, geographic information system (GIS) was used to estimate the potato leafhopper minimum temperature survival and premigrant development. The minimum winter temperature was estimated by overlaying minimum temperature isolines with potato leafhopper collection data taken during the winter. The geographic limits of the overwintering range were estimated using the minimum temperature survival to create a condition-based model by using ArcMap-GIS 8.2. The estimated overwintering range was larger and covered areas further north than previously estimated and included Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland. The use of degree-day accumulation to estimate days of first adult emergence in the overwintering areas resulted in earliest adult emergence in the south central region. First adult emergence in south central and southeastern areas occurred before the detection of potato leafhoppers in the north central United States. These data suggested that the difference in population arrival between the north central states and the northeastern states was more dependent on factors affecting the migration and weather conditions encountered along the migration pathway.

Internet mapping tools make scientific applications easy

Organizing complex information in the form of a map is a powerful and effective way of communication.This is especially true when linking spatially distributed scientific information to [real-world] applications. However, creating an intuitive and easy-touse interface between the user and the data requires a large amount of development time for user feedback and programming. To reduce this development time, it is now possible to couple spatial data with the increasingly popular Google Earth software (http://earth.google.com) package (Figure 1). (The products mentioned in this work do not indicate an endorsement by the authors. Additionally, the authors have no affiliation with the GoogleTM company) This free-to-use package allows users to avoid the costs associated with other high-end geographical information systems (GIS). While other free Internet GIS packages exist, including NASAs World Wind (http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov) and Microsofts Virtual Earth (http://local.live.com), one significant advantage of Google Earth is the use of Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for managing three-dimensional geospatial data. KML is an XML-based markup language that can be used to import and overlay user-defined data (vector or image form) and control views and zooming.

Computing Distance to the Nearest Utility: As the Crow Flies vs. as the Gas Flows

The purpose of this paper is to describe an automated geographic information system (GIS) process to estimate the length of pipeline required to provide utility service to a potential customer base using the street rights-of way. Using a case study application for a large gas utility company, we compare this method to the traditional method based on straight-line Euclidean, or as-the-crow-flies, distances. The GIS method using the street rights-of-way provides a substantially more accurate estimate of the length of required pipeline than the as-the-crow-flies method does. The improvement is particularly significant when the potential customers are located a substantial distance from existing pipelines. With improved estimates of required pipeline length, utilities can pre-qualify potential customers for marketing opportunities.