GIS provides ground for analysis to multi-disciplined group

As people spend more time at home, the result on consumer spend has significantly shifted our traditional expectations of supply and demand. The change in behaviour has upset the planning for food producers and processors, too. One can imagine the difficulties in throttling the production and delivery of food products to try and meet the demand, or lack thereof.

With agriculture, the issue with managing production and supply isn’t just within the country borders because the pandemic is affecting the global supply chain, in which Canada is active. To identify vulnerabilities in the network requires data and insights from a multi-disciplinary team.

At Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), a taskforce comprised of Market Service Industry Services, Science and Technology, and Strategic Policy, is utilizing GIS to provide a spatial dimension to how they are analyzing the sector. If you’re interested in learning what AAFC is doing, please read the case study: Understanding the Vulnerabilities of Canada’s Food Supply Chain.

James Ashton heads the geomatics group at AAFC. I had the pleasure of connecting with James recently via video conference.

This post was translated to French and can be viewed here.