Mapping Out The Food We Eat
Bill Hegman
Middlebury College
whegman@middlebury.edu
Special Topics in Spatial Analysis and Mapping: 2008
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
Presented by Bill Hegman, Middlebury College
October 30, 2008
NITLE – Special Topics in Spatial Analysis
Goals of the Project
(started in 2006)
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
•
Understand how our individual and institutional food
choices play out environmentally, economically, socially,
and politically.
•
Create a useful educational resource that can be used
across the curriculum.
•
Develop a stunning interactive representation of just how
vast the global food system really is.
•
Create an open source tool – hence Google Earth
This is one of the first projects of its kind—using GIS to track
and visualize the supply chain from farm to college dining plate.
Current Initiatives
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
Food Mapping: the narrative – where does our
food come from?
Really a network mapping problem. Could be applied to any network (I’ll
show some examples later)
First - How do we
define local?
Vermont or within 100 Miles
and
If the product is produced
locally using ingredients or
the majority of the labor is
local.
How much do we buy
locally?
Let’s find out.
Compiling Existing
Purchase Records and
Locations
(June 2006 – June 2007)
Really – this was the majority of the
work (7+ weeks)
Groceries
Meat
Bakery
Produce
Dairy
Frozen Food
Ice Cream
Paper Products
Non-Alcoholic
Alcoholic
Total: $3,992,604.19
Then – we proceed to
map the food network.
Criteria:
• Popular
• Relatively easy to
track ingredients.
• Variety
Each link required research.
Some links were easier to
track down than others.
Sometimes it was
difficult to tell the
mode of
transportation – so we
used straight lines.
Some of the links are
approximations. The
Durum wheat triangle
was difficult to define
exactly. It’s difficult or
impossible to track
wheat back to a
particular farm or
field.
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Montana
North Dakota
Minnesota
South Dakota
Building the Map in Google Earth
Each “node” in the
network has a point
and associated text
Each new node has a line
connecting to the
previous node. The line
represents a road or
other transportation
connection
Each node is its own Google Earth KML file
and
it contains several elements
Point with associated description
(typed or cut and paste)
A line that represents the
travel path
Creating the Links in KML
This line opens the new KML
file (node). The whole
line/reference has to be
inserted manually
This creates the underlined
hyperlink in the balloon text
box.
Burlington Foodservice (BFS) provides over half of the food bought by Middlebury College.
<DIV>The breaded chicken for Chicken Parmesan is mainly
<A href="http://geography.middlebury.edu/applications/Food_Mapping/Tyson_ChickParm.kml#Rogers;balloonFlyto">Tyson</A>
breaded chicken.
</DIV>
This name has to be unique
and is tied back to a
position “tag” in the
Tyson_ChickParm KML code.
This part flies to the point in
Tyson_ChickParm.kml and
opens the description
balloon.
KML Code
(Tyson_ChickParm.kml)
This name has to be added
manually to the
Tyson_ChickParm.kml.
</Placemark>
<Placemark id = "Rogers">
<name>Tyson</name>
<description><![CDATA[<DIV>Rogers, AR</DIV>
The breaded chicken breast fillet for Chicken Parmesan at the Middlebury College dining halls get shipped from its processing plant
in Russellville, AR to a distribution center in Russellville or here in Rogers, AR. Rogers is also home to two chicken furtherprocessing plants, The Pork Group headquarters, and The Pork Group Eastern Operations headquarters. Tyson works with over
6,800 independent contract farms across the country to raise chicken on Tyson-regulated growout farms. Tyson has hundreds of
processing plants, feed mills, hatcheries, and growout farms across the globe. To see where all of Tyson's poultry farms and
facilities are, click <A
href="http://geography.middlebury.edu/applications/Food_Mapping/Tyson_ChickALL.kml">here</A>.]]></description>
<LookAt>
<longitude>-83.64913943905169</longitude>
<latitude>39.88424230229439</latitude>
<altitude>0</altitude>
<range>2204367.022902698</range>
<tilt>-1.237290498659621e-014</tilt>
<heading>1.172681567813986e-014</heading>
<altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
</LookAt>
<styleUrl>#msn_T_copy3</styleUrl>
<Point>
<coordinates>-94.1247,36.3335,0</coordinates>
</Point>
</Placemark>
Adding Additional Data
to Enhance the Map
All these locations
were provided as
addresses on the
Tyson website. They
were geocoded using
Batchgeocode.Com
and then added to
Google Earth. This
took maybe a few
hours to compile.
How are we Using the Food Mapping?
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
•
As a catalyst for discussion around College purchasing
decisions. Three or four meeting so far that include the
Director of Dining Services, the Director of Purchasing,
students, Environmental Council and Faculty.
•
As a component of classes. The current class is John
Elders class on local food (ES class). Also part of
Environmental Economics (see other related projects).
•
As a catalyst around the Colleges carbon neutral initiative
and commitment. Howard Woodin Colloquium Series
http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/majors/es/events/woodin/
•
Linked to the Dining Services menu page that students
access daily. http://www.middlebury.edu/campuslife/dining
•
As part of outreach/student learning initiatives. This one
has the most potential (other related projects are
discussed below)
Why did we choose Google Earth?
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
•
•
Readily available
Free
•
Easy to use – especially for kids
•
Current imagery and data including regular updates
•
Accessible and easy to understand documentation
•
Lots of examples of applications, and active
application development.
Enhancements
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
•
Enhance existing networked meals to include more
“obscure ingredients”
Tyson breaded chicken fillets contain over 20 ingredients – a
dozen of which can be derived from corn*:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Corn fed chicken
Modified cornstarch
Mono, di, triglycerides
Dextrose
Lecithin
Chicken broth
Yellow corn flower
Cornstarch
Vegetable shortening
Partially hydrogenated corn oil
Citric acid
* Based on information presented in The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, 2006
Enhancements (cont)
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
There are also completely synthetic ingredients derived from
petroleum*:
•
•
•
•
Sodium aluminum phosphate
Mono calcium phosphate
Sodium acid pyrophosate
Calcium phosphate
•
Expand on the meals – focus on salad bar
•
Consider moving the content to Google Maps
or
Link the Google Earth Maps to a browser (there is now a
plug in available for Firefox and Internet Explorer)
•
* Based on information presented in The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, 2006
What’s Next with this Food Mapping
Initiative?
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
• Develop ties with other organizations and institutions
• Shelburne Farms – will sponsor an internship to help develop
a curriculum module (summer 2009)
• Looking for other sponsors
(Teresa Vaughn, Lincoln Elementary, Washington state)
• Networking with other Universities
• Attend conferences and network
(UVM - Amy Trubek and graduate students)
(Terra Madre and educational conferences)
• Identifying and working with other local non-profits
(VFN, VTFEED, NOFA)
Vermont Fresh Network
(VFN) Partners Map
Linking their database to
Google Maps.
Completed as part a 2008
summer internship by Jack
Cuneo.
The “links” for each partner can
also be shown.
In this example, all the farms
that supply the Inn at Baldwin
Creek are shown and described.
This map application will be up
on the VFN website sometime
late fall 2008.
What’s Next with this Food Mapping
Initiative (cont)?
Mapping Out the Food We Eat
• Continue to incorporate ideas into classes at Middlebury (Econ, ES, Geography)
• Environmental Economics and independent project
Carbon Footprint
http://geography.middlebury.edu/data/food_mapping/foodmappingFINAL.doc
http://www.nativeenergy.com/pages/travel_calculator/30.php
Local Multiplier Effect
http://geography.middlebury.edu/data/food_mapping/Geography_and_the_Multiplier.doc
• Continue work with Dining Services
• Maintain local vendors map done with Google Maps
http://geography.middlebury.edu/applications/Food_Mapping/Local_Vendors/Google_Maps/LocalVendorsMap.html
• Closed Food Loop Mapping – what happens to food when it get to Middlebury?
http://geography.middlebury.edu/data/food_mapping/Primary_Food_Deliveries.kml
GIS and Correlation/Causation
Speaker: Diana Sinton, University of the Redlands
Date: Tuesday, November 18th, 4pm EST
The Elephant in Adolescence: Managing & Supporting GIS
Speaker: Betsy Reese, Bryn Mawr College
Date: Tuesday, December 16th, 4pm EST
Special Topics in Spatial Analysis and Mapping: 2008