Breakfast City

Judging by the title of this entry, one might be inclined to believe that Battle Creek, Michigan is the subject of interest. And in many ways, one would be justified in feeling that way. However, this is not the subject of interest. The Twin Cities metropolitan area is the subject of interest.
If one has taken a course in economic geography, then this should be an easy topic. However, if not, well, here is a crash course in economic geography, at least on this topic.
In the American Midwest, there are three major agricultural belts.
1) Corn Belt
2) Wheat Belts
3) Dairy Belt.

The Corn Belt covers mainly covers and area from southern Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri in the west, to Ohio in east. This region has the soil types needed for growing corn, and an adequate rainfall.
The Wheat Belt stretches from northern Texas to North Dakota, and even touching parts of western Minnesota and eastern Montana. The Dairy Belt covers the area of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These are areas where wheat or corn cannot be grown easily for commercial use, but grass is plentiful.

The common denominator for this is Minnesota. Minnesota is the state where the corn, wheat, and dairy belts all meet. It is no coincidence that Minneapolis gained a nickname of “Flour Milling Capital of the World”. This would become a major center for grain milling. There was corn from southern Minnesota, and wheat from nearby western areas. It would be no coincidence that General Mills is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It is no coincidence that Land-O-Lakes butter is headquartered in suburb Minneapolis, in Arden Hills. With three major agricultural belts meeting in Minnesota, Minneapolis should have the title of “Breakfast City”.  Think of all of the breakfast foods eaten. Anything made by Pillsbury, a General Mills subsidiary. Think of Toaster Strudels. Think of Wheaties, Chex, and Cheerios. All of these products are made in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

Maybe next time when you sit down to have a bowl of Cheerios or Wheaties in the morning, and you look at the address and see “Minneapolis, MN” on the box, you might want to consider that General Mills has a reason for making that cereal in Minneapolis. Or the next time you put some Land-O-Lakes butter on your pancakes (which could be made by General Mills depending on what you use to make them), you might want to consider that Arden Hills, MN is a fitting place to have a butter company. Minnesota is located within the dairy belt after all. It gives a different meaning to breakfast.

http://schillerinstitute.org/strategic/2011/us_food_crisis.html

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crops_County/pdf/CR-PL11-RGBChor.pdf

http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/atlas02/

http://www.millcitymuseum.org/flour-milling-history