| Summary: | First paragraphs:
Our cover for this issue depicts the growing adaptation of statistical, infographic, and geographic information systems tools to local food system data. As a city and regional planning student with a specialty in food systems back in the mid-1980s, I could only have dreamed of such technology. We had Excel, of course, and I made the most of its charting tools, but nothing tells a story like a 3D color-coded data map!
At JAFSCD, we like to think we are fostering access to local food data. Every year we see new applications of the burgeoning technology available. Frankly, it is comforting to think that visual displays of information like the one on this issue’s cover provide not only a means for experts to discover new spatial information, but also for sharing information with lay people and allowing them to identify and contribute critical insights as well. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words; most of us are visual learners. In the not-too-distant future, we will be asking JAFSCD authors to make their data available for use by other researchers and practitioners for the benefit of the greater good—as part of our new open access, community-supported journal model....
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