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New 'Food Twin' Tool Exposes Fragility of Global Food Supply — A Call for Digital Backup Systems

12:13 AM, 12/06/2025

Food Twin is an open-source interactive platform from the Better Planet Laboratory and Earth Genome that maps global food routes across about 240 countries. The tool highlights concentrated risks—for example, 1.2% of countries produce half of domestic wheat exports—and identifies major chokepoints such as the Suez and Panama Canals. By visualizing flows and vulnerabilities, Food Twin helps governments and communities design contingency plans, test alternate routes and explore localized production to reduce shortages.

New 'Food Twin' Tool Reveals How Fragile the Global Food System Is

Researchers and policymakers now have a powerful new way to visualize how food moves around the world: Food Twin, an interactive platform developed by the Better Planet Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder in collaboration with the nonprofit Earth Genome. Led by researcher Zia Mehrabi, the project maps nearly every major port, road, rail link and shipping lane across roughly 240 countries to show how food travels from producers to consumers.

Food Twin aims to increase transparency and strengthen resilience in a food system already stressed by climate extremes. Droughts, floods and heat waves can cause cascading disruptions in supply chains that quickly appear at grocery stores and kitchen tables. The app helps governments, regional planners and local producers identify vulnerable links and design contingency plans.

"There's a need for building these systems, these digital food twins that can be used in decision-making contexts," Mehrabi said. "The first step to doing that is building the data."

The platform aggregates scattered datasets into a single, interactive map so users can trace flows and spot concentrations of risk. Its early findings are stark: just 1.2% of the world's countries account for half of all domestic wheat exports, meaning a local shock could ripple across many food markets. The tool also highlights major chokepoints — including the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal and key inland waterways in the United States and other countries — that carry outsized shares of global trade.

Crucially, Food Twin's data are open-source. This enables local planners, NGOs and researchers to model strategic reserves, test alternate routes, evaluate the benefits of localized production, and build digital "backup" systems to reduce shortages and stabilize prices. By turning fragmented information into a clear visual tool, Food Twin gives communities and policymakers a practical way to prepare for—and potentially prevent—future disruptions to the food supply.

Why It Matters

Understanding where food originates, how it moves, and where bottlenecks exist is a first step toward building more resilient food systems in an era of climate uncertainty. Food Twin provides that visibility and a starting point for targeted policy and investment decisions.

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