Articles by brankin
food
Posted June 03, 2006 at 10:58 PM
Where does our food come from? (And where should we expect to find the "meat lobby"?) But notice the marked discontinuity in soybean production between the Dakotas and Minnesota or Iowa -- different reporting methodology, or subsidies? And why is chicken production so clustered? Questions too sophisticated to be answered by these simple maps, [...]
federal lands in the us
Posted June 03, 2006 at 10:39 PM
This map shows visually the changes in federal land policy in the US:
The north-south line separating the west from the east shows a change in policy as western expansion progressed: a newly assertive federal government, the beginnings of the US conservation movement, and an admission that areas like the Great Basin could not be developed [...]
us counties
Posted June 03, 2006 at 10:48 PM
County boundaries show a kind of political density only somewhat related to population. Compare this map with maps of federal land, agricultural, and the US rail network; small counties with metes-and-bounds surveying recall an era of small-landholder farming.
