\u201cThis is a way\nto see that big data, to see your supply chains, see your lifelines,\u201d Ruddell\nsaid. \u201cWe look at exposure. If you have a lot of exposure in your supply chain,\nthere is a strong potential for you to be affected by a drought, storm or\ndecision far away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With FEWSION,\npeople can map from the sources of their community\u2019s animal products, grains,\nmeat and other foodstuffs; crude oil, gasoline, natural gas and electricity;\nand water sources. This is useful information for people who want to buy more\nlocal products or measure the sustainability of the community\u2019s food and energy\nconsumption, but the purpose of this data is far greater. Ruddell sees FEWSION being\nespecially useful for emergency managers, who can use it to plan ahead if a\ndisaster or situation in some other part of the country is likely to affect\ntheir community; and sustainability officers who want to reduce their community\u2019s\nfootprint by changing their commodity sourcing and supply chains. He also encouraged\nK-12 and higher education teachers to introduce their students to the FEWSION\nwebsite, which features video, a podcast, news, publications and links to other\neducational supply chain content and programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard Rushforth<\/strong>, the lead research scientist on the FEWSION project for NAU, led data development for FEWSION 1.0. It\u2019s a game-changer, he said; FEWSION allows not only researchers but also the public to access large datasets in an applicable way and learn more about where their food, water and energy come from and how different regions of the country are interconnected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople want to\nknow: How am I impacted locally? How is something happening on the other side\nof the country going to affect my life here?\u201d he said. \u201cBeing able to have that\ndata on hand visually and to be able to explore it is a really valuable tool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For people\nwondering how to apply the program, here\u2019s an example: FEWSION\u2019s website\nillustrates the supply chains linking New York City to Otter Tail County,\nMinnesota; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Bonneville County, Idaho; Monona\nCounty, Iowa; Yuma County, Arizona; and about half of California. These\nconnections show more than the routes lettuce, almonds, citrus, fuel and other\ncommodities take to get to the country\u2019s biggest city. FEWSION visualizes the\nrelationships that tie the United States together\u2014relationships that often are\ninvisible to the consumer but are evidence that Americans, for all their\ndifferences, are inextricably connected to one another, Ruddell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRural Americans\nand urban Americans are different in many ways,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir politics are\nvery different, their lifestyles are different, but they depend on each other\ncompletely because of their supply chains. In particular, city dwellers need to\nunderstand that they get much of their food, clean water and energy from rural\nAmericans and from communities throughout the country. Without this kind of\nmapping, city dwellers can\u2019t see that connection, and because they don\u2019t see,\nthey don\u2019t understand that they\u2019re exporting their environmental problems and\nfood and energy production to their rural neighbors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you see\nthose connections, you can understand how to vote and spend your dollars in\nways that benefit everyone\u2014urban and rural\u2014because we\u2019re all part of the same\nsystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to\nunderstanding that no city is a resource island, this knowledge also empowers communities\nto invest in the security, resilience and sustainability of their supply\nchains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, the\ncurrent drought emergency the Colorado River is not just a regional problem,\nRuddell said. If farms in Arizona or California run out of water, the supply of\nproduce is reduced and the price of healthy, fresh food goes up nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMembers of the\npublic should know where their food, energy and water are coming from, to\nunderstand how connected they are,\u201d he said. \u201cThat can affect the way they see\nthe world, and it can make you realize that problems in other places\u2014other\npeople\u2019s problems\u2014are actually your problems too, and that changes everything\nabout the way we see the world. It can change the way we vote, it can change\nour priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInformation is\npower\u2014the power to create positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramesh Gorantla, a software development lead at\nArizona State University\u2019s Decision Theater and part of the FEWSION team, said\nproject has the potential to enhance the supply chain and make communities more\nresilient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFEW-View provides a simple interface to explore\nthe United States food, energy and water supply chains,\u201d he said. \u201cThe tool\nperforms massive big-data computations and displays the queried results in an\nintuitive way so an ordinary public user can use the data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe all depend on food, energy\nand water,\u201d said Amy Walton, program director in the National Science\nFoundation\u2019s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, which funds FEWSION. \n\u201cNow, through FEWSION, we can see how what one community does affects its\nneighbor communities and how a community affects an entire ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n See where your\ncommunity\u2019s food, water and energy comes from and discover how FEWSION can\nbenefit educators, emergency managers, community leaders and sustainability\nofficers by visiting the Visualization page at fewsion.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FEWSION was\nfunded in 2016 by a grant from the Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and\nWater Systems program (#INFEWS ACI-1639529), which is funded by the National\nScience Foundation and the U.S Department of Agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"NAU](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/NAU_primary-281_3514-1-e1536853679171.png\")
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Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"