can-you-feed-me

Overview:

This app attempts to bring awareness to the simple question, can you be fed? The UN calculates that with the current global food store, everyone COULD be fed. This is based on your location (country-level) and the amount of food actually available (not how it is dispersed). The possibility of being fed, Yes or No, is calculated on the potential food stores of the current trade and production. In order to see if this was also possible in a self-sustaining economy (no imports or exports), the possibility of being fed was also to be implemented.

Main Goal:

Bring awareness to large amount of food stores and the possibility of everyone being fed.

Basically, visualize the amount of food available and the types if potentially all food was shared, and what food would be available with or without trade (import/export).

Features of the App:

Although for the time given in the Space Apps challenge, the app cannot reach 100% completion, we have a prototype currently running on the Google Play store.

The full app is meant to include the following:

Main Screen:

• Data for each country based on the FAO database, giving a YES or NO answer
• Calories consumed and calories available per person
• A division of how much food is exported and imported
• Division of food types (non-essentials, meat, etc.)
• A map of what parts/area of the country is contributing to food production and what type using land cover maps and current satellite data
• GPS locator for direct location of user

Options:

• Change the year to see if you could be fed in different times (as well as places)
• Change to self-sustaining mode - effect of no imports or exports on the result of YES/NO
• Change if wasted land was used for food production - the result if this affected the YES/NO

Some of these features are not yet implemented, but plan on being implemented in the coming months. Currently a test database is being used to provide the answers of yes and no.

What can this do and how does it relate to Space?

It can help educators and the general public gain awareness of food stores and food availability. People in more developed countries can come to the realization of how much food is wasted, and how much food can be produced locally. It would also show the general public that in some less developed countries, the food production is high enough, but the food distribution is poor. This quality could also help policy makers.

It can be used as input into disaster and wartime scenarios to help officials prepare mitigation plans and identify strategic food sustainability perimeters. People can identify what types of food are being produced and where, as well as how much food would be available in possible crisis.

Long-standing information sources such as Landsat and MODIS can combine with real time supply and demand data to give improved feedback on the capacity and limitations of local agriculture. This in turn can help governments plan for future eventualities.

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