My Food Map
This is a map I created showing, in a roundabout way, food security within each province. This is based on the amount of land that is designated as farmland in each province in relation to the population. The grain elevators show total production ($) from agriculture, and the colours represent different farming sectors. for optimal (local/provincial) food security, there should be an equal distribution of the four categories, or at least a similar one in each province which would limit the amount of imports. However, the prairies have a comparative advantage in growing grain and more available ranch land that it only makes sense to use this to grow excess food. This most likely skews the data which is showing the distribution of farm types because of the abundance of grain and meat types there. Other provinces like Ontario who also have a large amount of agricultural production have a lower "security" only because of their high population. I found it interesting to see the distribution of these data.
There were a few issues that arose and could be addressed to improve on this map:
1. include fisheries because they are a source of food, but they weren't included in the data sets that I had access to
2. filling the grain elevators instead of %farm type with $per farm type, this would make more sense since the height is determined by total $ production
3. info on the territories would be good
4. somehow incorporating the recommended food intakes from the Canadian Food Guide to see how each province is with the distribution of fruit and veg, grains, proteins, in relation to recommendations. Fruit and Veg would be way too low since we import so much, which is logical in such a northern climate
There were a few issues that arose and could be addressed to improve on this map:
1. include fisheries because they are a source of food, but they weren't included in the data sets that I had access to
2. filling the grain elevators instead of %farm type with $per farm type, this would make more sense since the height is determined by total $ production
3. info on the territories would be good
4. somehow incorporating the recommended food intakes from the Canadian Food Guide to see how each province is with the distribution of fruit and veg, grains, proteins, in relation to recommendations. Fruit and Veg would be way too low since we import so much, which is logical in such a northern climate