The Food Desert mapping tool at the USDA has received a lot of attention lately, but I'm more impressed with the USDA Food Atlas that offers a whole variety of ways to map America's food landscape.

Here are some screen grabs of my favorites. (Note that the maps have keys indicating precise numbers but the gist of the color scheme is that the darker the color the higher the number or the greater the concentration.)

Fast Food Expenditures Per Capita: Dark Red = $ 700 to $ 1,043

Pounds of Beef & Poultry Consumed at Home Per/Capita/Year: (Dark blue indicates 81-120 lbs/year)

Gross Direct Farm Sales Per Capita 2007 (dark blue indicates more than $ 50/capita in 2007. Maybe more significantly the lightest color indicates less than $ 5 per capita)

Percent of High Schoolers physically active (dark red indicates 47-49%, lightest color indicates less than 38%)