Excerpt from Technological Changes in the Transportation Sector: Effects on U. S. Food and Agricultural Trade; A Proceedings Transportation has always been important in agricultural trade, as reflected in the 1940 Yearbook of Agriculture: Transportation, whether provided by commercial agencies or by the farmer himself, is a vital necessity to the economic functioning of agriculture. Income growth overseas and accompanying changes in food preferences and diets are most often cited as drivers behind the unmistakable, more than decade-long shift in us. Agricultural exports from bulk commodities (e. G., wheat and soybeans) to monbulk items (e. G., meats and fruit). While income growth and some policy measures to liberalize trade are key determinants in the rise of perishable shipments, advances in transportation technology and logistics are equally important. For us. Agriculture to benefit from growing overseas demand for, say, fresh fruits and vegetables, shippers must be able to deliver them to purchasers thousands of miles away with no substantial loss in freshness and quality. Perishable agricultural products, many of which u.s. Farmers could only have dreamed of selling abroad just 10 years ago, now account for about 20 percent - a growing share of total us. Food and agricultural exports. Moreover, the cost of transporting perishable products is, in many cases, substantially more than for bulk commodities: 5 to 10 percent of the free on board (fob) value of grain versus over 30 percent for important horticultural products such as citrus and frozen potatoes. In part due to declining transportation costs and new technologies for handling and extending shelf life, perishable products are a rising component of trade in food and agricultural products. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Providing new insights into the relationship between transport and the environment, and the meaning of the concept of sustainable development for the transport sector, special attention is paid to the relationship between technological progress and policy. The different theoretical approaches are combined to create a strategy for R&D and the implementation of mega-technological innovations. The author deals with two specific cases: Maglev technology and fuel-cell technology for transport purposes. Taking into account the new theoretical insights and the empirical findings, the resulting synthesis and conclusions are important for researchers and professionals in transportation, environmental sciences and related fields.

Robert C. Post explores the political, social, and economic implications behind technological developments throughout American history.

Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this book. The third edition of The Geography of Transport Systems has been revised and updated to provide an overview of the spatial aspects of transportation. This text provides greater discussion of security, energy, green logistics, as well as new and updated case studies, a revised content structure, and new figures. Each chapter covers a specific conceptual dimension including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation and environmental impacts. A final chapter contains core methodologies linked with transport geography such as accessibility, spatial interactions, graph theory and Geographic Information Systems for transportation (GIS-T). This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. The accompanying website for this text contains a useful additional material, including digital maps, PowerPoint slides, databases, and links to further reading and websites. The website can be accessed at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans This text is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transport geography, as well as those interest in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering.