What are a few of the most important differences between your state and Oregon?

• I chose to look at the state of Utah compared to Oregon. I am originally from Utah and I know that in most areas, the climate is dry and the vegetation is flat, which is very different from our climate here in Oregon. This is probably what accounts for the difference in percentage of crops. Oregon has 66.5% while Utah has 31.6% which is less than half of Oregon. This is greatly affected by climate and how well the soil can maintain crops which the land in Utah is not built for. Another large gap I noticed were the percentage of livestock and products. Oregon at 33.5% while Utah’s is 68.4%. This could be due to the large amounts of land Utah has to offer. Utah has more open land than they do residential whereas Oregon is the opposite. The Environmental Indicators had some very obvious differences as well. Oregon with 3.2% of farms enrolled in conservation programs whereas Utah only has 1.5%. One more interesting difference that I observed was the amount of meat/poultry recalled. This stood out mainly because Utah was at 1500 lbs. while Oregon is at 0. 

How are they most similar?

• After looking at all of the indicators for each state, I found that both states had major similarities under the health indicator. Oregon has a 27.3% obesity rate and Utah has a 24.3%. The percent of the population who suffered from obesity were practically identical with Oregon at 33.8% and Utah with 33.5%. Percentage of households with food scarcity was also very similar.  

Why might these similarities and differences exist and how do they affect overall food system performance? Focus on indicators that you think are meaningful, important and directly comparable – not just on the largest differences.

• The first thing I noticed when I assessed both states and their indicators is that Oregon and Utah had very different numbers for almost all of the environmental indicators which I think can be easily related to the social values that are prominent in each state. Oregon is well known for its progression towards more environmentally friendly practices starting with recycling. Growing up, every time I would visit Utah, I would ask where their recycling was which many counties did not have. They didn't have a recycling bin. Although this stems away from agriculture, I think it portrays a very simple concept that Utah doesn't have the social pressure to incorporate environmental standards like Oregon does. On the other hand, the health indicators were all very similar which in my opinion, speaks more about our food system as a nation. Out of curiosity, I took a look at other states and their health indicators and found that the numbers/percentages for population obesity and population overweight all ranged around the 30%-40% range which surprised me. Many food systems in different states across the nation rely heavily on processed foods which is a result of the obesity data to be very similar for each state.