Micheal Clements, NAFB News Service

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research is awarding a $221,700 grant to Purdue University to research food supply chain disruptions. The grants allow for the creation of open-access online dashboards that help quantify and illustrate potential disruptions to the food supply chain. The dashboards will focus on COVID-19 but have the flexibility to be tailored to suit future market disruptions. Microsoft is providing matching funds for a $506,700 total investment, in addition to supplying cloud technology, business intelligence, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. FFAR Executive Director Sally Rockey says the effort will provide policymakers “with the information needed to prevent bottlenecks and ensure food security.” The dashboards, organizers say, will improve public understanding of the origins of food and provide critical information for enhanced policy and industry-level decision making. With the data, food supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 and future disturbances can be identified before reaching catastrophic levels.