Esri Geospatial Technology Promotes Local Food Systems in US

As part of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) ongoing commitment to support local and regional food systems, it recently released the KYF2 Compass Map. The interactive, web-based map provides information about these food systems and is a component of the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass, announced by agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack and deputy secretary Kathleen Merrigan of the USDA. The map uses Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology and web map services designed and developed by VSolvit LLC.

USDA originally launched the KYF2 initiative in 2009 to help revitalize rural communities by identifying the resources needed to grow, market, and distribute local food. The KYF2 Compass Map was created to carry that momentum forward by providing the public with a way to access information about where food is grown and the availability of local markets.

“USDA has shown how legacy GIS content can be rapidly organized to benefit broad groups of constituents,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president. “We are pleased that USDA has mapped local food systems and extended the use of government data to all stakeholders."

The KYF2 Compass Map is deployed using Esri Managed Services. Future plans include updating and adding new datasets and offering dynamic map views and map services. As the map evolves, it will ultimately benefit farmers, educators, businesses, and other organizations by aggregating many sources of data about local and regional food supply chains.

Part of the USDA mission is to help build a national dialog about local food systems. To promote this dialog, Esri supports the Twitter campaign around the Compass and encourages those Twitter users involved with local food projects to include the hashtag #KYF2 when referring to the KYF2 initiative and talking about the KYF Compass and map.

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

VSolvit LLC (pronounced "We-Solve-It") is a leading provider of geospatial and information technology consulting services and solutions to the government and the private sector. VSolvit was recognized as the USDA Woman Owned Business of the Year in June 2011. VSolvit’s SBA Certified 8(a)/SDB, 8(m)/WOSB status and availability of GSA schedules enables government agencies to have rapid access to geospatial expertise for geospatially enabling their organizations. Please visit us at www.vsolvit.com.