Researchers make concerning discoveries while studying global food supply: ‘There’s a need for building these systems’ – The Cool Down

Report on the “Food Twin” Platform and its Contribution to Sustainable Development Goals

Introduction

A new digital platform, “Food Twin,” has been developed to provide unprecedented insight into the global food supply chain. A collaborative project between the University of Colorado Boulder’s Better Planet Laboratory and the non-profit Earth Genome, the tool maps global food transit networks to expose systemic fragilities. The platform’s core mission is to enhance the transparency and resilience of the food system in the face of climate instability, directly addressing key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Platform Features and Objectives

The “Food Twin” platform was created to address a lack of accessible, comprehensive data on global food flows. Its design and purpose are aligned with fostering innovation and building resilient infrastructure, a cornerstone of SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

• Comprehensive Mapping: The tool visualizes nearly every major port, road, rail, and shipping lane involved in food transportation across 240 countries.
• Risk Identification: It helps governments, policymakers, and producers identify critical vulnerabilities and bottlenecks within their food supply chains.
• Decision-Making Support: By providing clear data, the platform enables the construction of more effective contingency plans to mitigate the effects of supply disruptions caused by climate events.
• Open-Source Data: In line with SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), the project’s data is open-source, encouraging global collaboration to strengthen food systems.

Key Findings on Global Food System Vulnerabilities

The platform’s analysis reveals a high degree of concentration and fragility within the global food supply, posing a significant threat to SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). The findings underscore the urgency of building more resilient systems.

1. Production Concentration: A mere 1.2% of the world’s countries are responsible for producing half of all domestic wheat exports, indicating that a regional disaster could have widespread global consequences on food security.
2. Critical Transit Bottlenecks: Key logistical chokepoints, including the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, and major inland waterways, handle a disproportionately large volume of the world’s food trade, making them critical points of failure.

Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

The “Food Twin” initiative provides a powerful tool for advancing several SDGs by transforming data into actionable intelligence for sustainable development.

• SDG 2: Zero Hunger: The platform directly supports the goal of ending hunger and achieving food security. By identifying weaknesses in the supply chain, it empowers nations and communities to prepare smarter food reserves, promote resilient agricultural practices, and ensure more stable access to food.
• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Food Twin is a prime example of leveraging technological innovation to build resilient infrastructure. It provides the critical data needed to upgrade and safeguard the logistical networks that underpin the global food supply.
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities: The tool helps communities become more self-sufficient and resilient. By understanding their food dependencies, local authorities can better plan for shortages and encourage localized food production, leading to more stable and sustainable urban and rural environments.
• SDG 13: Climate Action: The platform is fundamentally a tool for climate adaptation. It helps stakeholders understand and mitigate the impacts of climate-related shocks like droughts, floods, and heat waves on food distribution, thereby strengthening resilience against a warming planet.
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals: The development of Food Twin through a partnership between academia and a non-profit organization, coupled with its open-source data model, exemplifies the collaborative approach needed to tackle complex global challenges and achieve the SDGs.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The article discusses the “Food Twin” app, a tool designed to map and analyze the global food supply chain, highlighting its vulnerabilities, especially in the context of climate change. This directly connects to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focused on food security, infrastructure, climate action, and partnerships.

• SDG 2: Zero Hunger: The core theme of the article is the global food supply system. The app’s purpose is to make the food chain more resilient to prevent shortages and stabilize prices, which is central to achieving food security and ending hunger.
• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: The article focuses on a technological innovation (the Food Twin app) and the critical infrastructure (ports, roads, rails, shipping lanes) that underpins the global food system. It emphasizes the need to understand and build resilience in this infrastructure.
• SDG 13: Climate Action: The article explicitly states the app’s mission is to make the food chain “more transparent and resilient in the face of climate instability.” It mentions the impact of “droughts, floods, and heat waves” and a “warming planet” as primary risks to the food supply.
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals: The development of the Food Twin app is presented as a collaborative effort. The article mentions it was “developed by the Better Planet Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder in partnership with the nonprofit Earth Genome.” Furthermore, the decision to make the data “open-source” promotes knowledge-sharing and empowers global communities, reflecting the spirit of global partnership.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Based on the issues and solutions presented in the article, several specific SDG targets can be identified:

1. Under SDG 2 (Zero Hunger):
   • Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. The article addresses this by aiming for “fewer shortages and more stable prices,” which directly contributes to ensuring access to food.
   • Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality. The app helps build resilience against disasters like “droughts, floods, and heat waves.”
   • Target 2.c: Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility. The app’s goal of making the food chain transparent and helping communities prepare “smarter food reserves” aligns with this target.
2. Under SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure):
   • Target 9.1: Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all. The article’s focus on mapping and identifying vulnerabilities in “nearly every major port, road, rail, and shipping lane on Earth” is directly related to improving the resilience of this critical infrastructure.
3. Under SDG 13 (Climate Action):
   • Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. The app is explicitly designed as a tool to help “governments and local producers better understand where their systems are most at risk” from climate instability, thereby strengthening their resilience and adaptive capacity.
4. Under SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals):
   • Target 17.6: Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms. The partnership between a university and a non-profit to create the app, and making its data “open-source,” is a direct example of enhancing access to technology and knowledge-sharing.
   • Target 17.16: Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries. The collaboration described in the article is a model of a multi-stakeholder partnership aimed at a global goal.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, the article mentions and implies several indicators that can be used to measure progress:

• Indicator for Supply Chain Concentration: The article provides a specific data point: “Just 1.2% of the world’s countries produce half of all domestic wheat exports.” This percentage serves as a direct indicator of market concentration and vulnerability in the global food supply, which can be tracked over time.
• Indicator for Infrastructure Bottlenecks: The identification of “critical bottlenecks, including the Suez Canal, Panama Canal, and key inland waterways” implies that a key metric is the volume or percentage of global food trade passing through these specific points. Mapping and quantifying the reliance on these bottlenecks is an indicator of systemic risk.
• Indicator for Food System Resilience: The article implies that progress can be measured by tracking the frequency and severity of food shortages and the volatility of food prices. The app’s ultimate goal is to achieve “fewer shortages and more stable prices,” making these outcomes key performance indicators.
• Indicator for Data Accessibility and Use: The fact that the Food Twin’s data is “open-source” is an indicator of progress towards knowledge-sharing (Target 17.6). The number of governments, communities, or researchers using this open-source data for decision-making could be a metric to measure its impact.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Summary

Source: thecooldown.com