We use satellite data to track.
Hello, my name is Jocelyn Argueta, and this is Snacktime
with NASA. Today we're making a big favorite in my house chips
and dip. We are NASA, though, so this isn't going to be your
run-of-the-mill dip. This will be a seven-layer cropland dip.
Stick with me here.
Did you know that NASA plays a big part in the food you eat? We
use data from space to monitor agriculture and track food
security. So coincidentally, we have some of the crops that we
keep an eye on, get it now, seven-layer cropland dip. So we
can send a rover to Mars, but now the question is, can we make
a tasty dip. But before we get started, I want to welcome Dr.
Inbal Becker-Reshef, who's here to tell us all about NASA's
connection to the food we eat. Hi Inbal, how are you doing
today?
Hi, Jocelyn. Great. How are you?
Awesome. It's great to have you. So first things first, are you a
fan of chips and dip?
I love chips. Yes.
Oh, good. Good. Good to hear. So as the director of NASA's
Agriculture and Food Security program, can you tell us a
little bit about why NASA studies agriculture in the first
place when we're known more for space exploration then cooking.
As we all know, our planet Earth is also a planet. And so NASA
has satellites that are pointing out into space. But it also has
a lot of Earth Observing satellites pointing here down at
Earth. And of course, that's really critical because we live
here. And that's important for us to track and understand how
we're changing our planet, how our planet is responding. And in
particular, tracking agriculture, which is what we're
concerned with here. Food Security and agriculture are one
of the biggest challenges we face in this century. And NASA
satellite data since actually going back to the early days of
satellite monitoring, there has always been a large focus on
agriculture, agriculture covers a huge part of our land system.
And what that does is that helps us to get an accurate and timely
understanding of potential shortfalls, or surplus of crops
and for production around the world.
So it sounds like everything is connected much like different
ingredients in a larger dish. And I've just laid down the
first layer here of our dip, which are refried black beans.
And it sounds like Earth Observations work in a similar
way where things connect together. So how do these
observations help us better understand food security and
food production, especially in the face of climate change?
As we said food security is one of the most important and
critical challenges that we face. And so therefore having
information about where food is being grown, how much of it is
being grown, how it's changing over time, how it responds to
different climatic factors to extreme weather events, which of
course, as you've said, under climate change, in a warming
climate, we're seeing more and more erratic weather impacting
our food production. And so we have various satellites, going
up above and turning around us all the time that are helping to
monitor different aspects of the agriculture of our agricultural
system. And whether it is for helping us to distinguish where
for example, corn is being grown around the world, how it's
developing how it compares this year versus last year, for
example, in the Corn Belt in the United States. And so being able
to provide us that information in a timely matter, on a global
scale, is really critical for understanding and making
decisions relevant both for food security and for sustainability.
And we do have corn here as one of our layers. We also have
rice, we have avocado and the guacamole. Can we see any of
these staple foods being grown in the US?
Absolutely. And that's a large focus both of USDA, for example,
and that NASA is partnered with very closely for many years now.
And what they're focused on is, is utilizing satellite data for
being able to monitor the extent of products of where corn is
being grown versus soybeans versus wheat. And as we know, if
a farmer plants corn this year, he might plant soybeans the next
year. So it's very important in the US, and USDA has a large
focus on that. But also given that our food system is so
interconnected, being able to monitor both inside the US and
globally. And satellites enable us to do that.
So you can monitor crops all over the world. But who ends up
using this data? And how exactly does it help? Is it whole
governments that rely on it or do small scale farmers and land
managers use it?
That's a great question. And in fact, it's it's everybody. It's
ministries of agriculture, its statistical departments who are
trying to estimate how much production they're going to have
of different crops. It's the early warning community and
humanitarian community who are trying to assess where there are
going to be food shortages, and where there there will need to
be either food aid or other mitigation activities. And it's
of course, also farmers. And one example is is the the crop
monitor program under GEOglam. This provides information at the
global scale on a monthly basis operationally really targeted
more at policy makers who need to have a very quick way of
understanding what our global crop conditions. And so we've
been working with that policy community for a long time to
develop products that provide us a good global picture of crop
conditions and food supplies across the world.
So we're moving along here, we have corn next. And it sounds
like a lot of the information you've talked about could help
forecast events like food shortages, is that right?
Yeah, that's absolutely right. And so what we try to do is use
the satellite data to give us an early warning as soon as
possible. And really, we start to monitor crops as soon as
they're in the ground and growing, and trying to put an
alert as early as possible if we start to see, for example, the
impact of of a drought developing and track that
through the season. And this information, as early as
possible is really critical for policymakers, for governments to
be able to take mitigation actions to prevent food
shortages, or to prevent the biggest impacts of food
shortages, and implement mitigation strategies well ahead
And I know that NASA works with the USDA. And so why is it
of time.
important that agencies like NASA and USDA work together?
USDA is the United States Department of Agriculture, they
are responsible for providing global information on a monthly
basis on crop production and their forecasts set the gold
standard to which agricultural commodity markets react to so as
soon as those numbers come out every month, you can see the
reaction and the response in international markets. And so it
makes a lot of sense for for NASA to be working very closely
with USDA to ensure that they're able to take up the best
technology and analytics to inform their forecasting and,
and their policy development and decisions ultimately.
It sounds like it's such an important and exciting time now
for agriculture monitoring.
Yeah, it really is an exciting time for agricultural monitoring
and for its potential to help inform both our food security
and sustainability decisions and to help get us towards the SDG
goal of zero hunger, increasing food supplies, and at the same
time doing that in a sustainable manner.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's amazing. And what's also amazing is our dip here, which
s almost complete, but I think e can all agree that what would
ake it perfect, is a healthy ayer of cheese. Delicious. Th
re we go. Thanks so much for oining us today Inbal for shar
ng all this really great infor ation. And thanks every
ne for watching. Happy sn