Final Project

Final Project

For my final project, I am mapping organic farms in Virginia together with their retail and distribution outlets.  I will compare this with the median income of Virginia counties to show locations of likely consumers.

The reason why I choose organic farms is because I watched a documentary on TV and was astounded by the way the majority of farm animals, which make up our meat supply, were given drugs to artificially increase their growth.  Additionally, these animals were inhumanely treated and this could in the long run be associated with poor health of America.

My map audience will be health conscious consumers who are looking for an alternative to factory farmed animals are routinely given hormones and antibiotics.  These drugs collect in the fat of the animals and subsequently wind up in the meat and milk that we consume.  This could also be used by the organic farms to find new retail outlets for their products

The type of map I am envisioning for this project is a combination of location and choropleth.

The scope of my map will be Virginia.

The source of my data will be Certified Naturally Grown Farms website (www.naturallygrown.org/farms/list/227/va) and Farmer’s Pal website (www.farmerspal.com/organic-grocers-and-markets).  The median income data will come from the Census Bureau (www.census.gov).

Base map needed for this project is just a simple Virginia map, with ancillary layer of counties.  Counties will be shades of green indicating the amount of income per county.  Other layers will contain the data of the organic farms and another layer will contain the retail outlets.  These will be reflected on the map in the dot density style.

I expect production to begin the week of November 11^th.   I will start by collecting the data then creating my base maps.  After that I will coordinate the colors and finally add in neatline, title, scale, and legend.

Challenges I perceive will be if the retail or distribution centers are too close together.  The farms should be far enough apart to be identified.

I think my map will look similar to this.