Breadbasket
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the cultural/political concept. For other meanings, see Basket (disambiguation).
The Breadbasket of a country is a region which, because of richness of soil or advantageous climate, produces an agricultural surplus which is often considered vital for the country as a whole. As such the ownership of these regions is historically the subject of fierce military disputes.
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[edit] Regional breadbaskets
[edit] Classical antiquity
Sicilia and Africa were considered the breadbaskets of the Roman Republic. Later on Egypt was considered the breadbasket of the Roman Empire.
[edit] Portugal
Around the 1970´s, Alentejo was considered the breadbasket of Portugal.
[edit] India
The Punjab region is considered the breadbasket of India and Pakistan.
[edit] USSR
During the Cold War, Ukraine was often referred to as the Soviet Union's breadbasket, as an analogue to the North American Breadbasket.
[edit] United States
[edit] Nine Nations of North America
In the book Nine Nations of North America, author Joel Garreau argues that North America is divided not by state boundaries and national borders, but in terms of cultural divides. These cultural divides result in an apportionment of the North American continent into nine distinct territories — the "nations" of the title.
[edit] The Day America Told The Truth
In the book The Day America Told The Truth by James Patterson and Peter Kim, this region is called the Granary instead, but its boundaries are essentially the same as those Garreau drew for the Breadbasket: Both include western Indiana, northern and central Illinois except for the immediate Chicago area, Wisconsin except for the Lake Michigan shoreline, the northern half of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the states of Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas in their entirety, the easternmost tier of counties in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and northern New Mexico, the northern and western portions of Missouri and Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle.
