the food map: About Us
This project is the result of a senior year independent study by two geography students at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Our curiosity was sparked by a love of food, a quest for knowledge, and an atmosphere of sustainability. The issues surrounding food industries and sustainability are incredibly complex, and can make a weekly trip to the grocery store turn into a four-hour ordeal (yeah we've been there). The aim of this project was to shed some light upon the United States food network, as well as provide a (semi)comprehensive resource with which to gain knowledge.
As this was a semester long project, it is far from finished. The website right now is only the start to a hopefully much larger project with increased features, usability, and both width and depth of information. Ingredient, Company, and Local Food searches will be added, and we are playing with the idea of creating a wiki-style user-created database. If you have any comments, ideas, or criticisms we would love to hear them.
We would like to extend our thanks to Professor Mark Harrower, who advised us on our project, and also to everyone at the Google Maps API Google Group, who were always there to provide technical assistance.
There are also several excellent books that have helped culture our ideas and provide us with information: What To Eat by Marion Nestle, The Omnivore's Dillema by Michael Pollan, Twinkie Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger. Please excuse our lack of sources until we have a little more time to get up and running.