Data for Global Food Security Insights with Dr. Michael Humber, University of Maryland

On this episode of Through the Human Geography Lens, hosts Terri Ryan and Gwyneth Holt talk with Dr. Michael Humber, Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences, about his role as data lead within NASA’s Harvest Portal.   

00:55 What is NASA’s HARVEST Portal?   

- https://harvestportal.org/     

02:20 What is GEOGLAM? Is it related to the NASA HARVEST Portal?   

- G20 https://www.g20.org/en/about-g20/#members   

- Group on Earth Observations https://www.earthobservations.org/index.php   

- GEOGLAM https://earthobservations.org/geoglam.php   

- Food price spike in 2008 https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/high-food-price-crisis   

- And in 2011 https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011/september/commodity-price-spike/   

- Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) https://www.amis-outlook.org//   

- AMIS Market Monitor http://www.amis-outlook.org/amis-monitoring#.Y93Rl-zMJfE   

- Crop Monitor https://cropmonitor.org/   

- FEWSNet https://fews.net/     

06:50 Any recent insights, especially around Ukraine?   

- Potash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash   

- Potash market spike after the start of the Ukraine war https://ycharts.com/indicators/potassium_chloride_muriate_of_potash_spot_price     

11:00 Any surprises in the agricultural patterns you’re following?   

- Current material sanctions list https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/ukraine-russia-related-sanctions     

13:00 Assessing downstream aspects of the war in Ukraine, coupled with climate change and COVID   

- Macroeconomics https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/macroeconomics     

16:45 What are the biggest data gaps you’re seeing now?   

(1)  Field data measurements   

- Global map and indicators of food system sustainability https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0301-5   

(2)  Data from the grain trade – the transport and storage of grain https://cee.illinois.edu/news/first-map-americas-food-supply-chain-mind-boggling and https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/transportation-analysis/gtr-datasets     1

9:45 New data resources you’re excited about?   

- MODIS https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/   

- LANDSAT https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/   

- Wildfire imagery https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@0.0,0.0,3z     

- LIDAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuTm1jJy2XY   

- Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (global biomass) https://gedi.umd.edu/   

- Google Earth Engine https://earthengine.google.com/   

- Natural Language Processing Workflow in Geospatial Sciences https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356010869_Natural_Language_Processing_in_GIScience_Applications   

- Crop Explorers USDA/FAS https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/   

- Hunger Map Live (WFP) https://hungermap.wfp.org/     

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