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We use satellite data to track.

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Hello, my name is Jocelyn
Argueta, and this is Snacktime

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with NASA. Today we're making a
big favorite in my house chips

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and dip. We are NASA, though, so
this isn't going to be your

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run-of-the-mill dip. This will
be a seven-layer cropland dip.

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Stick with me here.

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Did you know that NASA plays a
big part in the food you eat? We

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use data from space to monitor
agriculture and track food

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security. So coincidentally, we
have some of the crops that we

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keep an eye on, get it now,
seven-layer cropland dip. So we

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can send a rover to Mars, but
now the question is, can we make

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a tasty dip. But before we get
started, I want to welcome Dr.

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Inbal Becker-Reshef, who's here
to tell us all about NASA's

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connection to the food we eat.
Hi Inbal, how are you doing

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today?

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Hi, Jocelyn. Great. How are you?

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Awesome. It's great to have you.
So first things first, are you a

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fan of chips and dip?

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I love chips. Yes.

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Oh, good. Good. Good to hear. So
as the director of NASA's

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Agriculture and Food Security
program, can you tell us a

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little bit about why NASA
studies agriculture in the first

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place when we're known more for
space exploration then cooking.

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As we all know, our planet Earth
is also a planet. And so NASA

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has satellites that are pointing
out into space. But it also has

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a lot of Earth Observing
satellites pointing here down at

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Earth. And of course, that's
really critical because we live

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here. And that's important for
us to track and understand how

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we're changing our planet, how
our planet is responding. And in

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particular, tracking
agriculture, which is what we're

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concerned with here. Food
Security and agriculture are one

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of the biggest challenges we
face in this century. And NASA

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satellite data since actually
going back to the early days of

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satellite monitoring, there has
always been a large focus on

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agriculture, agriculture covers
a huge part of our land system.

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And what that does is that helps
us to get an accurate and timely

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understanding of potential
shortfalls, or surplus of crops

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and for production around the
world.

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So it sounds like everything is
connected much like different

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ingredients in a larger dish.
And I've just laid down the

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first layer here of our dip,
which are refried black beans.

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And it sounds like Earth
Observations work in a similar

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way where things connect
together. So how do these

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observations help us better
understand food security and

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food production, especially in
the face of climate change?

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As we said food security is one
of the most important and

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critical challenges that we
face. And so therefore having

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information about where food is
being grown, how much of it is

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being grown, how it's changing
over time, how it responds to

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different climatic factors to
extreme weather events, which of

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course, as you've said, under
climate change, in a warming

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climate, we're seeing more and
more erratic weather impacting

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our food production. And so we
have various satellites, going

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up above and turning around us
all the time that are helping to

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monitor different aspects of the
agriculture of our agricultural

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system. And whether it is for
helping us to distinguish where

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for example, corn is being grown
around the world, how it's

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developing how it compares this
year versus last year, for

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example, in the Corn Belt in the
United States. And so being able

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to provide us that information
in a timely matter, on a global

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scale, is really critical for
understanding and making

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decisions relevant both for food
security and for sustainability.

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And we do have corn here as one
of our layers. We also have

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rice, we have avocado and the
guacamole. Can we see any of

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these staple foods being grown
in the US?

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Absolutely. And that's a large
focus both of USDA, for example,

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and that NASA is partnered with
very closely for many years now.

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And what they're focused on is,
is utilizing satellite data for

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being able to monitor the extent
of products of where corn is

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being grown versus soybeans
versus wheat. And as we know, if

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a farmer plants corn this year,
he might plant soybeans the next

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year. So it's very important in
the US, and USDA has a large

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focus on that. But also given
that our food system is so

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interconnected, being able to
monitor both inside the US and

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globally. And satellites enable
us to do that.

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So you can monitor crops all
over the world. But who ends up

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using this data? And how exactly
does it help? Is it whole

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governments that rely on it or
do small scale farmers and land

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managers use it?

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That's a great question. And in
fact, it's it's everybody. It's

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ministries of agriculture, its
statistical departments who are

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trying to estimate how much
production they're going to have

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of different crops. It's the
early warning community and

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humanitarian community who are
trying to assess where there are

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going to be food shortages, and
where there there will need to

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be either food aid or other
mitigation activities. And it's

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of course, also farmers. And one
example is is the the crop

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monitor program under GEOglam.
This provides information at the

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global scale on a monthly basis
operationally really targeted

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more at policy makers who need
to have a very quick way of

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understanding what our global
crop conditions. And so we've

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been working with that policy
community for a long time to

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develop products that provide us
a good global picture of crop

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conditions and food supplies
across the world.

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So we're moving along here, we
have corn next. And it sounds

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like a lot of the information
you've talked about could help

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forecast events like food
shortages, is that right?

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Yeah, that's absolutely right.
And so what we try to do is use

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the satellite data to give us an
early warning as soon as

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possible. And really, we start
to monitor crops as soon as

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they're in the ground and
growing, and trying to put an

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alert as early as possible if we
start to see, for example, the

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impact of of a drought
developing and track that

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through the season. And this
information, as early as

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possible is really critical for
policymakers, for governments to

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be able to take mitigation
actions to prevent food

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shortages, or to prevent the
biggest impacts of food

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shortages, and implement
mitigation strategies well ahead

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And I know that NASA works with
the USDA. And so why is it

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of time.

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important that agencies like
NASA and USDA work together?

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USDA is the United States
Department of Agriculture, they

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are responsible for providing
global information on a monthly

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basis on crop production and
their forecasts set the gold

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standard to which agricultural
commodity markets react to so as

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soon as those numbers come out
every month, you can see the

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reaction and the response in
international markets. And so it

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makes a lot of sense for for
NASA to be working very closely

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with USDA to ensure that they're
able to take up the best

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technology and analytics to
inform their forecasting and,

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and their policy development and
decisions ultimately.

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It sounds like it's such an
important and exciting time now

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for agriculture monitoring.

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Yeah, it really is an exciting
time for agricultural monitoring

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and for its potential to help
inform both our food security

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and sustainability decisions and
to help get us towards the SDG

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goal of zero hunger, increasing
food supplies, and at the same

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time doing that in a sustainable
manner.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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That's amazing. And what's also
amazing is our dip here, which 

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s almost complete, but I think 
e can all agree that what would 

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ake it perfect, is a healthy 
ayer of cheese. Delicious. Th

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re we go. Thanks so much for 
oining us today Inbal for shar

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ng all this really great infor
ation. And thanks every

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ne for watching. Happy sn