Snack Time with NASA: Chips & Dip

Snack Time with NASA: Chips & Dip

Narration: Jocelyn Argueta

Transcript:

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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 snacking!