The elements of your dinner tonight have been on a journey which will have spanned hundreds of miles, crossing oceans and continents earlier than lastly arriving in your plate. Meals Twin, an interactive digital map created by researchers on the College of Colorado Boulder and the nonprofit Earth Genome, gives a groundbreaking option to see that journey visualized. By combining agricultural manufacturing knowledge, commerce flows, transportation networks, and dietary metrics, Meals Twin reveals the worldwide commerce routes used for transporting meals produce world wide.
A World Map of What Feeds Us
Click on on the Meals Twin map and you may immediately see the categories and portions of meals teams exported from the chosen space – whereas the map sidebar supplies detailed data on the meals varieties exported and the export locations.
The map makes use of superior modeling from CU Boulder’s Higher Planet Laboratory, Meals Twin to chart the circulate of meals from farms to shoppers in over 3,700 states and provinces throughout 240 nations. It goes past exhibiting the place crops are grown – it additionally calculates the energy, protein, and important vitamins touring via world commerce routes.
Why This Issues for the Future
The information behind Meals Twin isn’t simply fascinating, it might additionally show important in getting ready for altering local weather. The map makes it doable to mannequin how floods, droughts, and heatwaves might disrupt meals provide chains. For instance, if a pure catastrophe impacts one area of a rustic the map can assist determine which communities world wide would really feel the influence first. It’s hoped that as excessive climate occasions turn out to be extra widespread, policymakers and researchers can use Meals Twin to anticipate disruptions and design security nets to guard and feed weak populations.
