USDA Food Environment Atlas
February 16, 2010 12:36 PM Subscribe
Aspx: our gummint at work. Let me know when this is up again. I'll be over here, eating my Snickers bar.
posted by jsavimbi at 12:55 PM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jsavimbi at 12:55 PM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
You can download the spreadsheet in a few minutes. I suggest trying that while waiting for this site to get its shit together.
posted by jessamyn at 12:58 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by jessamyn at 12:58 PM on February 16, 2010
Horrible interface on map. Can only see state outlines and have to guess if I'm clicking in the right county areas. Then, the data in the pop-up balloon is cumbersome to read since the area is so small, requiring lots of scrolling. Missing and inaccurate data for my town, too.
posted by D.C. at 1:28 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by D.C. at 1:28 PM on February 16, 2010
I think this data is at such a high level of aggregation that is meaningless to anyone aside from academics (or people who like abstract measures). Though it is cool that the data is available.
I find something like this New Orleans Food Map a lot more relevant and useful, in principle.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 1:46 PM on February 16, 2010
I find something like this New Orleans Food Map a lot more relevant and useful, in principle.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 1:46 PM on February 16, 2010
I'd like it if there was an easier way to contrast and compare counties.
posted by keli at 2:09 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by keli at 2:09 PM on February 16, 2010
I'd like it if it worked.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:18 PM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mudpuppie at 2:18 PM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you select your state from the drop down menu and then zoom in using the navigation buttons. you'll see county lines.
posted by oddman at 2:31 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by oddman at 2:31 PM on February 16, 2010
I think it's worth pointing out that this is (as best I can tell) part of the open government initiative whereby US citizens are getting access to our data in a systematic way. USDA's other data is also becoming available and the government is generally embracing open document standards. This is a very good thing.
posted by idb at 2:45 PM on February 16, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by idb at 2:45 PM on February 16, 2010 [3 favorites]
This is interesting, thanks for the link. Just looking at my hometown county, its a little hard to view in actual numbers the disparities I see whenever I'm home. Its disgusting when prepackaged foods are cheaper than real food, in an agricultural county.
posted by shinyshiny at 2:52 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by shinyshiny at 2:52 PM on February 16, 2010
Is this where I find cheese steak?
Also, first five user names begin with J.
Time for a donut. With cheese.
posted by Duke999R at 3:31 PM on February 16, 2010
Also, first five user names begin with J.
Time for a donut. With cheese.
posted by Duke999R at 3:31 PM on February 16, 2010
It sucks. Creating it wasted a bunch of our money. Here's why: it shows data without context. My county has "32 convenience stores with gas." It has ".414 grocery stores/ 1000 pop". What the hell does this mean?
I think the Open Government Initiative is a Great Thing, for sure. But it needs to be less clever in how it presents data, and more contextual.
posted by beagle at 3:52 PM on February 16, 2010
I think the Open Government Initiative is a Great Thing, for sure. But it needs to be less clever in how it presents data, and more contextual.
posted by beagle at 3:52 PM on February 16, 2010
The Open Government Initiative seems like it could use some pointers from data.gov.uk.
posted by isnotchicago at 4:03 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by isnotchicago at 4:03 PM on February 16, 2010
Checking out the source, it looks like it was made by ESRI which seems to have some nice maps so I can only imagine what the requirements document looked like that the USDA asked for.
posted by wcfields at 4:16 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by wcfields at 4:16 PM on February 16, 2010
Worked for me; mediocre user interface, but good enough to show that San Luis Obispo County has 4 times as many Farmers Markets per capita as Santa Barbara County (and 9 times as many as L.A. County). In yo FACE, Santie Barbie!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:35 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:35 PM on February 16, 2010
If I'm reading this right, and I am, it seems like the number one food in the United States is fudge. That's data I can get behind.
posted by Nedroid at 5:11 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by Nedroid at 5:11 PM on February 16, 2010
beagle, that means that there is one grocery store per 2415 people.
posted by aspo at 5:45 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by aspo at 5:45 PM on February 16, 2010
I think this site points out the two sides of the coin that is the open data movement. On one side are all the positives about open data: citizenry paid for the data collection and it should be available, knowledge is power, etc.
The other side of the coin is the question raised by beagle. The "so what" factor. What can/should the average citizen get from the data?
A lot of this type of data collected by the government is (hopefully) collected for some purpose, such as to inform policy or for research but may not be immediately useful for the average citizen. Well, maybe marginally useful if you're interested in talking smack to your friends about how your county has a more vibrant farmers market scene than theirs.
The open data movement is on the whole a net positive, but making the data useful is as important as just dumping the data out. Personally, I think the site deserves a B- or C+. Weak user interface, but the advanced query capabilities are good and the ability to download the data is also a good thing. Kudos to the ERS office at USDA for putting it out. Often getting these things done at all within state/federal government is a significant undertaking filled with lots of frustration when all the cooks start descending on the kitchen offering their "helpful suggestions".
posted by cptspalding at 6:01 PM on February 16, 2010
The other side of the coin is the question raised by beagle. The "so what" factor. What can/should the average citizen get from the data?
A lot of this type of data collected by the government is (hopefully) collected for some purpose, such as to inform policy or for research but may not be immediately useful for the average citizen. Well, maybe marginally useful if you're interested in talking smack to your friends about how your county has a more vibrant farmers market scene than theirs.
The open data movement is on the whole a net positive, but making the data useful is as important as just dumping the data out. Personally, I think the site deserves a B- or C+. Weak user interface, but the advanced query capabilities are good and the ability to download the data is also a good thing. Kudos to the ERS office at USDA for putting it out. Often getting these things done at all within state/federal government is a significant undertaking filled with lots of frustration when all the cooks start descending on the kitchen offering their "helpful suggestions".
posted by cptspalding at 6:01 PM on February 16, 2010
Seven fast food restaurants in my county. 32% of the students in my county are eligible for free or reduced lunch. 11% poverty. 190 pounds of fruit/veg per year per capita. Adults meeting activity guidelines 73.3%
In Chittenden County, where Burlington is, the so-called "rich" county. 112 fast food restaurants. 19% students reduced/free lunch eligible. 9.6% poverty. 190 lbs fruit/veg [must be a state thing] Adults meeting activity guidelines 73.3% [again. statewide, I guess]
I was going to look at another county, but the damned thing just stopped working. This is clearly not supposed to be a consumer application but something for data folks I guess, but it's messy, sort of broken and has a real databarf aspect to it. I'd love to see what people who really know how to build websites could do with this same datset.
posted by jessamyn at 6:08 PM on February 16, 2010
In Chittenden County, where Burlington is, the so-called "rich" county. 112 fast food restaurants. 19% students reduced/free lunch eligible. 9.6% poverty. 190 lbs fruit/veg [must be a state thing] Adults meeting activity guidelines 73.3% [again. statewide, I guess]
I was going to look at another county, but the damned thing just stopped working. This is clearly not supposed to be a consumer application but something for data folks I guess, but it's messy, sort of broken and has a real databarf aspect to it. I'd love to see what people who really know how to build websites could do with this same datset.
posted by jessamyn at 6:08 PM on February 16, 2010
I suspect some of the data comes from ESRI Business Analyst, which is an amazing dataset of geocoded business by NAICS code (and more) for the US (14 + million data points). If you are lucky enough to be in an academic institution you might have access to it (I believe they only sell the entire US under academic licensing).
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 8:00 PM on February 16, 2010
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 8:00 PM on February 16, 2010
this is awesome.
i don't think clicking on the map is the best way to access the data, though. checking the boxes on the left to color the map produces some pretty interesting results. Mississippi/Alabama shows up bad on multiple counts: gal per capita soft drinks, adult diabetes/obesity rates. and what could explain the shape of the area outlined for lbs per capita solid fats? seems like an odd one.
posted by bilgepump at 10:48 PM on February 16, 2010
i don't think clicking on the map is the best way to access the data, though. checking the boxes on the left to color the map produces some pretty interesting results. Mississippi/Alabama shows up bad on multiple counts: gal per capita soft drinks, adult diabetes/obesity rates. and what could explain the shape of the area outlined for lbs per capita solid fats? seems like an odd one.
posted by bilgepump at 10:48 PM on February 16, 2010
I agree, this is awesome. Look at the "food insecurity" maps. The South is starving. Then look at the fast food and obesity maps. The South is also eating unhealthily. (Confirmed in the adult diabetes map.) Why is that? Look at the % of households with no car and more than a mile to a grocery store: From 10-30%! WTF.
I wonder how much good we could do just build some grocery stores/food coops/whatever in semi-rural places. Get these people access to fruits and vegetables (check the map--they don't eat any).
(Or maybe just some money, which the map shows they also lack. Not a surprise there.)
posted by DU at 5:10 AM on February 17, 2010
I wonder how much good we could do just build some grocery stores/food coops/whatever in semi-rural places. Get these people access to fruits and vegetables (check the map--they don't eat any).
(Or maybe just some money, which the map shows they also lack. Not a surprise there.)
posted by DU at 5:10 AM on February 17, 2010
yep, mind-blowing. fresh food production counties (like mine) are *not* fresh food consumption counties. we have a bajillion farms, but no farmers markets. we have like 67 springs and some of the finest free drinking water in the state, but we drink more soda pop than anything.
last but not least, the preschool obesity rate is heartbreaking out here in the sticks. the healthiest kids are those from area native families (who spend *all* their time hunting and fishing). everybody else moved here from south FL, looking to escape "crime".
these people don't let their kids (of any age) play outside unsupervised, meaning they don't let them play outside at all. at local parks with playgrounds, I've seen a family pull up in a minivan, decant two small children onto the playground while the parents stay in the van with the motor running, headlights trained on the jungle gym. the children play, in a desultory fashion, for about 15 minutes, then go back to the van and away they go.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:06 AM on February 17, 2010
last but not least, the preschool obesity rate is heartbreaking out here in the sticks. the healthiest kids are those from area native families (who spend *all* their time hunting and fishing). everybody else moved here from south FL, looking to escape "crime".
these people don't let their kids (of any age) play outside unsupervised, meaning they don't let them play outside at all. at local parks with playgrounds, I've seen a family pull up in a minivan, decant two small children onto the playground while the parents stay in the van with the motor running, headlights trained on the jungle gym. the children play, in a desultory fashion, for about 15 minutes, then go back to the van and away they go.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:06 AM on February 17, 2010
It stopped working for me once I got to the interesting parts. Much of it is incomprehensible to me. (But I'm on cold meds.)
posted by Hildegarde at 8:16 AM on February 17, 2010
posted by Hildegarde at 8:16 AM on February 17, 2010
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posted by jquinby at 12:53 PM on February 16, 2010