Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries: Two World Wars and a Depression: Food Production Leaves the Region

Even before the Depression New England farmers were feeling pressure from the Midwest, where larger farms achieved an economy of scale practically impossible in the Northeast. Many smaller canneries in rural areas went out of business by World War II, and during the war, labor shortages, even when alleviated by the work of prisoners of war, closed down others. Dairy farming and fruit growing with some market gardening kept some food production within the region, but rising land values and a growing regional population looking for house lots starting in the 1970s have forced many more farms out of existence. In the early twenty-first century most food consumed in New England comes from other regions in the United States and the world.