ABSTRACT
Transport is an essential component of all food systems, especially those in industrialized nations such as the United States, which have highly developed industrial complexes and intensive agricultural systems. They grow food crops in specialized regions most conducive to agricultural production (e.g., the corn belt of the United States). Industrial production sites are generally located near population centers and available power sources. Thus, harvested crops have to be transported to the cities and towns where industry is located, and machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, fuel, and other goods used in agricultural production have to be transported from urban areas to farms.
