Over the past year, Earthrise Media’s Food Twin project has created a compelling “digital twin” of the U.S. food system—a dynamic model that maps the journey of our food from fields to forks. Built with expert Zia Mehrabi and collaborators at The Plotline and Development Seed, this proof‑of‑concept tool vividly illustrates how a mere 5.5% of U.S. counties produce half the nation’s food, highlighting a highly centralized and fragile system. Using crop yield data and climate stress models, it reveals how heatwaves, droughts, or other shocks in key growing regions can disrupt supply chains and threaten downstream consumers. The project underscores the urgent need for diversification, local resilience, and proactive policies to protect communities from cascading food system failures.
